Gene Inspector 1.6.4 review
DownloadGene Inspector, currently available for Mac OS 10.
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Gene Inspector, currently available for Mac OS 10.2 or later, is a unique combination of a versatile electronic laboratory research notebook and a comprehensive sequence analysis product. Using GI, the user has the ability to define an entire 'suite of analyses' that can be performed each time they (or anyone in the lab) has a new sequence, and the user can design custom "style sheets" which specify exactly how the output will look. This information can then be saved as a new 'menu item' with a name - such as "Researcher's Suite #1". This feature alone will add an amazing amount of consistency within the lab - when comparing analysis results of different sequences by different researchers in the lab.
GI has one of the most versatile multiple sequence display tools available. There are over 640 different ways to display multiple sequence alignments to highlight exactly what the user wants to demonstrate. It is amazingly flexible.
Drag & Drop allows users to not only drag sequences and analysis results within Gene Inspector, but it allows objects to be dragged directly to other Drag & Drop enabled applications such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, and Microsoft PowerPoint -- where they can be modified.
Because GI is an electronic notebook (in addition to performing comprehensive sequence analyses) analysis output results can have 'wrap-around' text noting the researcher's annotated thoughts and comments - together in one place. Using GI, a biologist can make use of 'GI Notebook Extensions' that contain formatted table templates, analyses, graphics or text that he/she uses often... Each can be instantly available with the click of the mouse button. The researcher can also use "conditional text" that can be 'shown' or 'hidden' - ideal for hiding notes when the researcher wants to make a poster directly from their GI Notebook. Of course in an electronic notebook, the user has access to electronic book marks and appendices. GI is quite unique.
Here are some key features of "Gene Inspector":
Gene Inspector was designed from ground up to work the way you naturally work as a biologist – you are not constrained by the structure of the program to perform tasks in a predefined way.
Gene Inspector is centered around a powerful notebook that serves not only as a container for analysis output but as a genuine laboratory notebook and illustration tool. The Gene Inspector Notebook can contain information or annotations that you previously kept in your old fashioned paper notebook along with all your sequence analysis and laboratory experimental results. Why keep these two parts of your research artificially separated when you can combine them in a single location?
Gene Inspector has built in hotlinking, which allows you to connect a sequence to a set of analysis routines. Each time the sequence is changed, the output results can be set to be automatically updated.
All analyses run in background so you can continue to work in your notebook or even in other programs without interrupting the progress of the analysis.
Gene Inspector contains analysis suites, which provide a way to create a collection of analysis routines and associated parameters that meet your needs.
Analysis suites can be recalled by selecting them from a menu and specifying a sequence (or several sequences) to be analyzed. This provides consistency and allows even beginners to produce results that can be compared directly with those of more experienced users in the group.
Gene Inspector contains interactive analysis output objects that allow you to fine tune analysis results to examine exactly what you are interested in.
Gene Inspector Notebook sheets can be adjusted to any size – great for designing posters, slides, or just making the notebook fit your screen - text automatically reformats to fit the notebook size.
Gene Inspector Notebook appendices can store commonly needed information (like buffers, vector descriptions, etc.) which can be viewed at any time from any location in the notebook.
Gene Inspector provides over 60 different nucleic acid and protein analyses including: sequence alignment, base composition/distribution, ORF determination and evaluation, restriction mapping, sophisticated multipartite find, dot matrix comparisons, antigenicity, hydropathy, transmembrane helices, helical wheel, Prosite motif searching, physical characteristics, signal sequence, protein structure prediction, and many more.
Many analyses can be done using median sieving to bring out structures of a specific size (i.e. - membrane spanning)
Gene Inspector allows you to easily navigate in the notebook through electronic bookmarks and aliases.
Gene Inspector Notebook extension are instantly available with the click of your mouse button and can contain formatted table templates, analyses, graphics or text that you use often.
Limitations:
Printing, saving, exporting disabled in Demo.
What's New:
Fixed a problem that sometimes lead to difficulties in opening older notebooks containing very large sequence analyses
Increased stability when working with large notebooks
Fixed a problem that did not allow window size to be changed in dot matrix analyses.
Gene Inspector 1.6.4 keywords