BORNHEIM, Germany - Lion Bioscience AG and Celera Genomics, of Rockville, Md., expanded their collaboration in an agreement that includes the distribution of Lion's bioinformatic tools by Celera and further development of Lion's software by both companies.

According to Friedrich von Bohlen, CEO of Heidelberg, Germany-based Lion, his company's data integration platform SRS powers the Celera Discovery System. CDS is a web-based portal for access to Celera's databases and tools.

The companies said they will "collaborate to create improved software tools to meet the dynamic bioinformatics needs of life science researchers." According to the same statement, Celera President Craig Venter said: "This alliance should allow scientists to better navigate the ever-changing landscape of biology and should enable important discoveries."

"Lion's SRS will enable customers to access easily Celera's and other available data on the Internet. Our tools bioSCOUT, genomeSCOUT and array SCOUT will be available via CDS on a subscription basis," von Bohlen said. "Distributing our tools on top of the SRS-driven CDS helps to further establish Lion's solutions as the standard to life science research."

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.