Computer superpower International Business Machines (IBM; Armonk, NY) on August 16 announced it will invest US$100 million in its new Life Sciences business unit to “develop solutions for the life sciences industry.” IBM estimates the IT expenditure of life-science companies will nearly triple to $9 billion by 2003. Among other things, the new division plans to develop internet security for genomic information, improve biological images (particularly proteins), and maximize efficiency of annotated databases. The new division has also absorbed current research-oriented bioinformatics projects, including the DiscoveryLink data management software first licensed on September 11 by Incyte Genomics (Palo Alto, CA); this software speeds up genomic and proteomic analyses by translating information (such as gene sequence, expression, and proteomics data) from a variety of sources into a common text format. The new business directions will complement the development of supercomputer Blue Gene (Nature Biotechnology, 18, 8), according to Caroline Kovac, vice president of IBM's Life Sciences unit (Somers, NY).