Development of a web-based resource for the Macrophage Research Community

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Macrophages are large white blood cells that are also found in substantial numbers in every tissue of the body. Their numbers are increased still further in response to inflammatory stimuli. They are essential in many aspects of normal physiology and wound repair, and they act as a first line of defence against pathogenic organisms, coordinate both the immune responses to infection. For this reason, their biology is of very broad interest in the biomedical, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and animal production industries and there is a large community of scientists who study them. The past 10 years has seen a massive increase in the amount of information about macrophages, especially concerning the ways that different genes are controlled in order to generate the many different functions of these cells. Genome-scale information is very difficult for individual scientist to access and comprehend in ways that enable them to develop and test hypotheses. This proposal aims to establish a web site that will serve as a community resource for the international macrophage biology community. It is what is called a web2.0 resource, in which the community participates actively in generating the resource, and in communicating through it. It will be populated with convenient tools that enable visualisation and analysis of large sets of data relating to genes that function in macrophages; data contributed by participating research groups.