Bioz, Inc. Announces the Addition of a New Algorithm to its Suite of Objective Star Ratings for Life Science Tools

Objective Vendor Ratings Algorithm Guides Researchers in Selecting the Best Unpublished Life Science Products for Use in their Experiments

PALO ALTO, Calif. - September 7, 2017

Bioz, Inc., developers of the world's first and most comprehensive search engine for life science experimentation, today announced immediate availability of the Bioz vStars vendor rating system.

Bioz vStars provides an average quality rating of a vendor's products via a deep analysis that is based on hundreds of millions of life science products already mentioned in published scientific papers, while incorporating real-time usage data of more than one million Bioz users. The new vStar algorithm results is valuable insights for life science researchers and a strong indicator for the identification of the most appropriate products to use for their experiments.

What makes the technology truly unique is that it guides researchers in their product evaluation process even when a product doesn't have any article mentions in published research, and therefore, a Bioz Star rating is not associated with it. The Bioz vStar rating is based on the assumption that if a vendor has other high-quality products, then it is likely that its unpublished products will also be high-quality, and vice versa. Moreover, the Bioz vStars acts as a confidence score, allowing the researcher to get an indication of the score of a product even if it has not yet appeared in articles.

The research community has long asked for an easier method for selecting laboratory products, one that features evidence-based comparisons between competing brands and products. Bioz vStars fulfills this need, offering a multi-parameter, data-driven algorithmic vendor quality score that is based on multiple weighted parameters. Whereas, the existing Bioz Stars ratings focus on individual products, as cited in articles. Bioz vStars is compiled by taking the average score of a vendor's complete line of products, with several other parameters, in order to indicate a brand's reliability and prestige in cases when there are no article-mentions for a particular product.

"Our new Bioz vStars algorithm extends the value proposition of our Bioz Stars rating system, by providing even deeper insights for life science researchers around the world who are planning their experiments," said Dr. Karin Lachmi, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Bioz. "Now, researchers are able to view the confidence score of a vendor's full suite of products, which will help them decide which products to use in their experiments, even if those products did not yet appear in articles, thus helping to ensure that their future experiments are better, quicker and more cost-effective."

Annually, $80 billion is spent by academic and biopharma life science researchers on experimentation products, ranging from reagents to consumables to instruments and equipment. Many products, such as antibodies, have extremely high failure rates, which can lead to research delays and stalled drug discovery.

A product may not have any article mentions due to one or more of the following reasons: it is a new product, it is rarely used, or it is the type of product that researchers do not typically mention in articles. The Bioz vStar rating is a tool that provides a snapshot assessment, and should be considered alongside other information, including Bioz' unique experimentation insights that have been identified and structured from within articles.

Bioz vStars helps researchers select the best reagent, kit, lab tool and assays, in cases when there are no direct article mentions of a specific product, but there are article mentions for other products from that same vendor. The innovative rating system promises:

• A Mathematician-Developed and Researcher-Approved Algorithm. Each vendor's Bioz vStars rating leverages an algorithm developed from a deep understanding of the work that life science researchers perform.

• Easy Consumption. Ratings are given on a scale of zero to five stars, to help researchers quickly and confidently assess a product's likelihood to perform well, when choosing a product for their experiment.

• Bias-Free Ratings. Each rating is calculated using a sophisticated multi-parameter algorithmic mathematical model, with all vendors, products and assays being evaluated based on the same set of criteria, with the addition of score normalizing and standardizing.

• Objectivity. Bioz treats all vendors and products equally, as ratings cannot be bought with any type or form of payment.

The Bioz search engine - in use by more than one million users in 196 countries - provides life science researchers with billions of data-driven experimentation insights and objective ratings for millions of products. Bioz' proprietary algorithmic rating systems uses data points extracted from tens of millions of published, peer-reviewed scientific articles using the latest advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) - including Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML).

Hundreds of researchers, including Nobel Laureates, experienced mathematicians and data scientists have validated the accuracy of Bioz vStars.

Bioz vStars is free to researchers and scientists. To learn more, visit: https://www.bioz.com/vendor_ratings