Today’s mantra is that all companies are now software companies. Apps are at the heart of many company’s operations, and those apps need to be created, deployed and managed. That’s what Informatics Matters has done for many years, for many customers.

Whether it be desktop apps, browser-based apps or mobile apps, we and our partners have it covered. Whether it be Java, Python, Javascript we have it covered. We handle the full software development life cycle and take great care of software quality and usability. Our prime expertise is in scientific applications for the life sciences sector, but much of our expertise also applies to other sectors.

Here are a few examples of what we have done:

Squonk

Squonk is Informatics Matters current flagship product. More information about Squonk as a product can be found on the Squonk website.

There are currently 2 main parts to Squonk, the Squonk Platform that provides a robust scalable infrastructure for applications to be deployed, and the Squonk Computational Notebook which provides a browser-based environment for scientists to create, execute and share scientific workflows.

Squonk is a complex multi-tier software project, and we incorporate many leading modern open source technologies such as Docker, Apache Camel, Apache Wicket, Jackson, JBoss Weld. From a user’s perspective, the Squonk Computational Notebook is a simple to use browser-based app that lets them perform their scientific workflows. Behind this is a powerful service tier that allows a wide range of services to plugged in and become available from the Computational Notebook. Key to this is containerisation of services using Docker images. The standard way to add new services is to generate a Docker image that executes the service and a service descriptor that tells Squonk how the service can be executed.

Squonk is a key part of the Horizon 2020 OpenRiskNet project, and as part of this project, we are migrating Squonk to a Kubernetes/OpenShift environment to enhance robustness and scalability.

Instant JChem

Instant JChem is a widely used desktop chemistry solution product sold by ChemAxon. It was developed jointly by Informatics Matters and ChemAxon, with Informatics Matters driving the key design and project management in the initial years. Around 2012 Informatics sold its rights to Instant JChem to ChemAxon.

Instant JChem is widely used in pharmaceutical and biotech companies, as well as other organisations involved in chemistry research. It is still one of ChemAxon’s best selling products.

Instant JChem is a Java-based desktop application. We chose to build it on top of the Netbeans Platform as that provided a robust application infrastructure we could use rather than have to build. This highlights our approach of using best of breed tools rather than re-inventing the wheel by writing infrastructure code.

European Lead Factory

For many years Informatics Matters has been a partner of ChemAxon, and performed many of its software development consultancy projects. One such project was the library submission portal for the European Lead Factory (ELF), part of the Innovative Medicines Initiative.

A recent presentation on the successful delivery of this project can be found here.

CRC Press Chemical Dictionaries

CRC Press has a number of chemical dictionaries, a portfolio of chemical information in a number of application areas. One way this is delivered is through a desktop application that is distributed on DVD_ROM. Informatics Matters has created this product for CRC Press and has maintained and enhanced it over a number of years.

Like Instant JChem this is a Java-based application based on the Netbeans Platform and integrates structure representation and search using ChemAxon’s Marvin and JChem products.

More information about the CRC Press Chemical Dictionaries can be found here.