Development of a Mediator to Integrate Access to Databases in Molecular
Biology
This project is funded by the
BBSRC/EPSRC Joint Programme in Bioinformatics
(Grant Reference: 1/BIF06716).
People
Project Overview
Developments in our ability to integrate and analyse data held in existing
heterogeneous data resources can lead to an increase in our understanding of
biological function at all levels.
However, correlating data from different data resources is still difficult.
To address this, we are building upon advanced database technology to develop
a mediator which will integrate access to heterogeneous, distributed
biological databases, while making use of existing search engines and indexes,
without infringing on the autonomy of the underlying databases.
To make it easier for scientists to access these data resources, we are
developing a network user-interface to facilitate multi-database querying.
Our integration techniques have potential for use with a wide variety of
databases.
However, we have particular interest in using them to support our protein
modelling work, particularly modelling proteins of the immune system.
In this, we can make use of data stored locally on antibody
sequences and structures, and related data held at other sites.
A particular strength of our use of object-oriented technology is the ability
to combine computation with data retrieval. In the context of homology
modelling, this means that fitting and transformation operations implemented
as database methods can be applied directly to objects representing molecular
fragments retrieved from the databases.
Demonstrations
Further Information
Bioinformatics Research
Group |
Computing Science |
University of Aberdeen
Last updated: July 19 2001
gjlk@csd.abdn.ac.uk