Bangalore is the destination for bioinformatics startups from United States and Europe, who are looking for joint venture partners, markets for IT solutions, and also body-shopping for skill base from scientific manpower.

Several university professors from abroad who are incubating startups at their universities are looking for technology tieups with Indian universities and institutes. The professors and heads of US biotech and life sciences software companies are now convinced that the Indian scientific community has the credentials they need to have a go at lucrative business ventures.

According to investor financial company officials, the brainpower to manpower ratio is 80:20 for startup companies to take off. US universities are working out attractive education-employment strategies to attract Indian students who have a background in information technology and a good grasp of biology. The training imparted would mould them into bioinformaticians, who are scarce today.

Another point is that almost every biotech company is investing in a minimum of $ 15-20 million to set up bioinformatics divisions. According to a group of American scientists, the demand for bioinformaticians worldwide is one million. Today, there are 1,000 bioinformaticians in Europe and 3,000 in the US.

Bangalore has recently seen a spurt in biotech companies like Incyte Inc, DSQ Biotech and Strand Genomics. An IIT professor, Vijay Chandran started Strand Genomics with Charles Rockland, head of Riken Bain Science Institute, Japan and the company has a vision project to address long-term commercial initiatives.

Those specialised in the discovery informatics platform like Dr Christopher Ahlberg, co-founder of Spotfire, a company that specialises in information visualisation and human-computer interaction is showcasing corporate data storage with end-user discovery systems.

Present research scientists are looking at simple methods for complex data handling in drug discovery. Hence, the need for fresh generation of end-user oriented tools. In this direction, applications are being developed for the Indian market, where the scientists are hooked on to the IT applications for easy interface, explains Dr Ahlberg.

Dr Scot D. Kahn, vice president of Life Sciences Research and Development of Molecular Simulation, USA is here to market MSI life science products. GeneLogic Inc USA, headed by Eric Eastman has developed the Gene Express TM Suite of products, which combine the most comprehensive survey of gene expression information available with powerful bioinformatic tools to accelerate medical and pharmaceutical R&D.

Bangalore being the hub of pharma research with Astra Zeneca, The Himalaya Drug Company, Micro Labs, Eros Pharma and labs at the Indian Institute of Science and the National Centre for Biological Sciences, there is market here for companies like GeneLogic Inc and Base4Inc whose software Pharmatrix helps address process architecture in science labs. Venture capitalists are angling at Bangalore's scientific community who have recently turned aggressive and are looking at commercial initiatives for a slice of a cake in the international bioinformatics business scene.