CLC bio has just released version 3.0 of their highly popular solution for analyzing and visualizing next generation sequencing data, CLC Genomics Workbench. The new version is crammed with new and powerful features, like digital gene expression, expression analysis of micro arrays and RNA-seq data - and an overhauled long reads assembler which is up to 15 times faster than the previous version.

Dr Roald Forsberg, director of Scientific Solutions at CLC bio, states, "With this release we deliver the world's first complete cross-platform solution which combines expression analyses with next generation sequencing, thereby building a bridge between digital and analogue gene expression. Furthermore, we embrace the fact that the NGS vendors continually are providing longer and longer reads, and to fully utilize that potential we have improved our assembler for long reads, so it's now up 15 times faster and delivers more precise results compared to short read assembly."

CLC Genomics Workbench is the first and only comprehensive analysis package, which can analyze and visualize data from all major Next Generation Sequencing platforms, like Illumina's Genome Analyzer, SOLiD by Applied Biosystems, 454 by Roche, and HeliScope by Helicos. CLC Genomics Workbench is platform independent, running on Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux - including 64bit versions.

A select few customers already using CLC Genomics Workbench include J Craig Venter Institute, Beijing Genomics Institute - Shenzen, and University of Aarhus.