Pathway Commons: A Public Library of Biological Pathways

描述（由申请人提供）：生物学途径代表了分子、过程及其相互作用的知识。这些路径图被用于设计和分析实验，以及预测生物系统的行为。通路信息目前处于碎片化和不完整的状态，生物学家很难利用这些信息，需要花费大量的时间和精力来梳理、拼凑和分析。开发Pathway Commons研究资源是为了克服这一障碍，它为研究人员提供了一个方便的单点访问方式，可以将多种生物通路信息翻译成一种通用的数据语言。这个项目是朝着在所有物种和发育阶段建立完整的、综合的可计算细胞图谱迈出的重要一步。Pathway Commons通过社区促进和支持收敛，以实现真正集成的可计算和可搜索的细胞生物过程表示。Pathway Commons不会与路径数据库或软件工具提供商竞争或重复。现有的数据库组提供路径管理，而pathway Commons提供增加价值、传播和减少重复工作的机制和技术。与用户和数据库组的协作是一个核心组件，其驱动因素是对最大协同和效率的渴望。路径共享资源将聚合来自多个主要路径数据库的数据集；翻译、存储、验证、索引、整合、超链接和维护信息，以获得最高质量的访问；利用先进的互联网技术，向学术界和商界的科学公众免费提供路径信息；同时，提供开源的终端用户路径浏览和分析软件。科学界将免费获得对Pathway Commons和相关资源的用户支持和培训。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Biological pathways represent knowledge about molecules, processes and their interactions. Maps of such pathways are used to design and analyze experiments, and for predicting the behavior of biological systems. Pathway information is extremely difficult for biologists to use in its current fragmented and incomplete state, involving a large amount of time and effort to wade through, piece together and analyze. The Pathway Commons research resource is being developed to overcome this roadblock by providing researchers with a convenient single point of access to diverse biological pathway information translated to a common data language. This project is an important step towards the development of a complete and integrated computable map of the cell across all species and developmental stages. Pathway Commons promotes and supports convergence, by the community, to a truly integrated computable and searchable representation of cellular biological processes. Pathway Commons does not compete with or duplicate efforts of pathway databases or softward tool providers. Existing database groups provide pathway curation, while Pathway Commons provides mechanims and technology for adding value, disseminating, and reducing duplication of effort. Collaboration with user and database groups is a central component, driven by the desire for maximum synergy and efficiency. The Pathway Commons resource will aggregate datasets from multiple major pathway databases; translate, store, validate, index, integrate, hyperlink and maintain the information for maximum quality access; freely deliver pathway information to the scientific public, both academic and commercial, using advanced internet technology; and, provide open-source end user software for pathway browsing and analysis. User support and training for Pathway Commons and related resources will be freely available to the scientific community. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The completion of the human genome sequence and advances in molecular technologies has led to an explosion of biological data, which is driving biology towards increased use of computational tools. Pathway Commons is making biological knowledge available for computational processing, and is helping create predictive models of biological processes. These models will revolutionize biology and health research.