Briefings in Functional Genomics and Proteomics Advance Access originally published online on November 19, 2007
Briefings in Functional Genomics and Proteomics 2007 6(3):161-162; doi:10.1093/bfgp/elm028
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Editorial
Molecular life sciences are addicted to high-quality, cost-effective resources – materials as well as related information. It is a special challenge to generate them in full compliance to internationally recognized standards and to make them world-wide accessible through fast and convenient distribution channels. Especially stimulated through the international Human Genome Project, there has been a rapid development from early lab-to-lab sharing of, e.g. cell cultures and plasmids to governmentally funded biological resource centers and private service companies, from stand-alone databases to integrated solutions for systems biology. By now, a real resources and services market for functional genomics and proteomics has emerged and is constantly growing. On this market, an increasing number of highly-specialized service-provider companies compete with each other by focussing on features that are shaped by its customer needs for highest quality, shortest response and delivery time, highest degree of standardization, lowest price and most convenient access – a benefaction for the research community.
Currently we even witness a spectacular qualitative jump in progress: resources as yet in use for basic functional genomics and proteomics research only, pave their way to clinical applications, to diagnostics and therapeutics. Examples are the first DNA-microarrays that are cleared by the FDA and EU for in vitro diagnostic use and a clinical trial involving the intraocular injection of siRNA to treat age-related macular degeneration.
This special issue of Briefings in functional genomics & proteomics puts a spotlight on a fantastic assortment of biological and bioinformatical resources available worldwide. Although this covers a wide range of tools and applications, it can't be more than an incomplete, arbitrary selection that merely conveys an idea of what's going on at the resources side of research and its outcome. Florian Wagner and colleagues focus in their article on recent developments and perspectives of scientific services provided by genomic biological resource centers (GBRCs) in a number of countries, putting a spotlight onto RZPD German Resource Center for Genome Research. cDNA clone resources for various species are essential tools for studies of functional genomics. Jun Kawai, Piero Carninci and Yoshihide Hayashizaki discuss in their review the importance of quality and availability of these valuable resources. For several reasons, the mouse is an ideal model organism for the functional analysis of the genome. In their review about EUCOMM – The European Conditional Mouse Mutagenesis Program, Roland H. Friedel, Claudia Seisenberger, Cornelia Kaloff, and Wolfgang Wurst describe one of the cornerstones of an international effort to create a global mouse mutant resource. The European Mouse Mutant Archive (EMMA), which is the main centre for the archiving and distribution of mutant mouse lines essential for biomedical research in Europe, with access to a wide range of disease models and other research tools, is described by Michael Hagn, Susan Marschall and Martin Hrabe’ de Angelis. Martin Asslaber and Kurt Zatloukal focus in their review on biobanks that contain biological samples and associated information that are essential raw materials for the advancement of biotechnology, human health, and research and development in life sciences. Moreover, they describe important examples for trans-national, European, and global biobank networks.
Giulietta Spudich, Xosé M. Fernández-Suárez and Ewan Birney present a general introduction to Ensembl, an open source genome browser that makes it possible to organise and depict a wealth of gene information, which is accruing in public databases, in the context of the genome. The rapidly increasing amount of information on three-dimensional (3D) structures of biological macromolecules has still an insufficient impact on genome analysis, functional genomics and proteomics as well as on many other fields in biomedicine including disease-related research. Rolf Hühne, Frank-Thomas Koch and Jürgen Sühnel describe the resources available from a user's point of view and from a comparative perspective. Their aim is to guide researchers outside the structure biology field in getting the most out of 3D structure resources.Modelling and simulation techniques are valuable tools for the understanding of complex biological systems. Christoph Wierling, Ralf Herwig, and Hans Lehrach highlight different data resources, standards, as well as modelling and simulation tools that are relevant to integrative systems biology. This fine assortment of reviews demonstrates the wealth of resources available, which are an important pillar as well as catalyser for cutting-edge functional genomics and proteomics research. It provides much more than a snapshot regarding the resources itself, since tendencies of resource-integration, internationalisation, funding and commercialization are also discussed. I would like to thank all the authors for their participation and deeply appreciate the quality of their contributions to this special issue.
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