Bioinformatics Resources for Circular Dichroism Spectroscopy and Structural Biology: Operation, Enhancement, Curation, and New Developments

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This proposal is for a renewal of the previously-funded Bioinformatics and Biological Resources Fund project "The Protein Circular Dichroism Data Bank, the DichroWeb Server, and ValiDichro: Data Sharing, Analysis and Standards Resources for CD Spectroscopy", which enabled the creation, curation, operation and development of the unique Protein Circular Dichroism Data Bank (PCDDB) for free public data-sharing of spectroscopic and meta-data, DichroWeb, the most widely-used resource (in the UK and internationally) for analysis of CD spectra, and the advancement of data quality standards and validation protocols. This project's aims are to operate, curate, enhance, and maintain these comprehensive electronic archiving and analysis resources for CD spectroscopy which are widely used by both the academic and commercial (bigPharma, SMEs, food industry) sectors in the life sciences. It also aims to develop new analysis tools for structural biology, and to promote data-sharing, including the reuse and re-purposing of archived data. This will maximise public benefit from data generated by UK research council-funded studies. The project would also support the development of a new suite of tools for novel types of analyses (including cross-methodological ones), and a "one-stop-shop" server providing a pipeline for processing, analysis, display, and data bank deposition (thereby simplifying and improving the use of CD spectroscopy by the non-expert community, and the speeding up of these processes for regular CD users). An added value for the resources is that they are used in teaching undergraduate and graduate students, and through workshops, videos, publications, and user training sessions, we will provide educational as well as operational tools. These projects have strong support from both the UK and international user communities, as indicated by the letters of support included with the proposal. In summary, these bioinformatics and data-sharing resources provide a comprehensive package of enabling and supportive tools in CD spectroscopy for academic and industrial biochemists, structural biologist, and bioinformaticists.