Dubbed the United Protein Database, or UniProt, the new, public database will combine the resources of three existing protein databases: SWISS-PROT, TrEMBL and the Protein Information Resource (PIR). The action is aimed at ensuring that researchers around the world will have free, unrestricted access to a comprehensive and non-redundant source of protein information, as well as creating a powerful tool for the study of human disease.
"One of the great challenges facing scientists today is interpreting the tremendous amount of data being generated by the Human Genome Project and related research," said Dr. Francis S. Collins, the director of NHGRI. "The UniProt database will become a resource for all scientists to use, both to develop a better understanding of biology and to translate that basic science into clinical applications. This award demonstrates that NHGRI and NIH continue to be committed to funding bioinformatics infrastructure for the international scientific community."
Proteomics research the large-scale study of proteins and their interactions has accelerated in recent years because of technological advances in protein science and the large amounts of genomic data pouring out of the Human Genome Project (HGP). These advances have strained the ability of one protein database SWISS-PROT, a hand-curated and annotated protein-sequence database to keep pace with the needs of the world's scientists. Established in 1986 by Amos Bairoch, Ph.D., now a group leader of SWISS-PROT at the Swiss Institute of Bioinformati
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Contact: Geoff Spencer
spencerg@mail.nih.gov
301-402-0911
NIH/National Human Genome Research Institute
23-Oct-2002