Social Network for Scientists Marks Ten Years Online

The Science Advisory Board, a professional social network of more than 34,000 scientists, celebrates its ten year anniversary.

ARLINGTON, VA (PRWEB) September 14, 2007 -- The Science Advisory Board (http://www.scienceboard.net), a professional social network of more than 34,000 scientists, celebrates its ten year anniversary - making it one of the most enduring communities on the Web.

The Science Advisory Board is a division of BioInformatics, LLC (http://www.gene2drug.com), a research and advisory firm serving more than 300 clients in the life science, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, IT, scientific publishing and finance industries.

The Science Advisory Board Website was unveiled on September 12, 1997 and began to immediately recruit qualified scientists. From the start, the goal has been to bridge the gap between the manufacturers and end-users of instruments, products and services used in advanced biological research and drug discovery.

The idea behind the creation of this dynamic online community was that the traditional concept of a scientific advisory board often fails to accurately reflect the experiences, preferences and unmet needs of those professionals who actually use the products manufactured by industry. By utilizing the Web as a communications medium, The Science Advisory Board provides life scientists "in the trenches" with a prominent voice that helps drive the development of new tools and technologies for basic and applied research.

Scientists accepted for membership on the Board reap both professional and personal rewards. The Website boasts tens of thousands of pages of user-generated content in the form of scientific white papers, blogs, and a discussion forum where scientists can seek and offer advice. Members also submit reviews of hundreds of new products, books, databases and Websites. Through a unique rewards program, members accumulate ViewPoints each time they participate in The Science Advisory Board's activities. Qualified scientists can also earn additional ViewPoints and other honoraria by sharing their expertise and opinions with industry through consultations, surveys and focus groups. ViewPoints can then be redeemed for gifts or in the form of charitable donations.

The Science Advisory Board was a pioneer in utilizing the Internet to facilitate communications between professionals with special expertise. As similar companies such as IT Toolbox (http://www.ittoolbox.com) and Sermo (http://www.sermo.com) carve out strong positions in IT and healthcare respectively, The Science Advisory Board remains the premier online community serving the life sciences.

"A decade before people started talking about Web 2.0, our philosophy has always been to provide our members with the online tools that help them conduct their research more effectively," commented Tamara Zemlo, Ph.D., M.P.H., and Chair of the Board's Steering Committee. "By enabling scientists to collaborate with each other and to share their experiences with the community, we have created an indispensable resource used daily in labs around the world."

About the Science Advisory Board

The Science Advisory Board (http://www.scienceboard.net) is an online panel of more than 34,000 scientists and biomedical researchers from 62 countries. Members are experts on the cutting edge of their disciplines and available to share in-depth knowledge of related technologies and discuss emerging trends. While their technical capabilities are broad given the multidisciplinary nature of biological research, clients can also gain deep insights into their specific areas of expertise. These areas of expertise include-but are not limited to-bioinformatics, biotechnology, cell biology, drug discovery, genetics, immunology, microbiology, molecular biology, neuroscience, pharmacology, physiology, and virology.

About Bioinformatics, LLC

BioInformatics, LLC (http://www.gene2drug.com) is the premier research and consulting firm serving the life science tools industry. By leveraging our global social network of tens of thousands of biomedical researchers, we have supported more than 300 companies and provided insights that lead to better business decisions. Clients include instrumentation manufacturers, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies as well as scientific publishers, IT vendors and investment analysts. Our assignments include assessing the size and attractiveness of markets, optimizing product configurations and pricing, validating corporate acquisitions, measuring customers' brand loyalty, and evaluating brand strength and positioning.

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