Continued Development and Maintenance of GLYCAM-Web

描述（由申请人提供）：碳水化合物修饰蛋白质和细胞表面，作为疾病和免疫过程的识别实体，与细胞衰老有关，并用作生物信号载体。它们在很多方面都很有用，其中一个原因是它们可以采用各种各样的形状。部分是因为它们对生物系统的重要性，部分是因为它们的结构复杂性，科学家，特别是那些研究它们的生物学作用的科学家，能够轻松地生成准确和有用的它们及其与蛋白质复合物的3D模型是至关重要的。然而，由于碳水化合物结构的复杂性，这些模型的生成非常困难。即使是熟悉生物系统计算机建模的研究人员也会觉得这项任务令人生畏。然而，仅仅为计算专家提供准确的建模便利是不够的。为了克服广泛的研究人员采用这些方法的障碍，重要的是软件要直观，并提供适当使用的指导。GLYCAM-Web在线工具套件（www.glycam.org）多年来一直在朝着这个目标迈进。六年前，它开始是伍兹碳水化合物模型研究小组的内部工具。此后不久，它作为一个免费的在线实用程序公开发布。网站统计数据已经收集了大约5年，通常平均每月400-500次访问。基于支持请求、征求用户来信和在学术期刊上找到的网站参考资料，它主要由从事生物学研究的人员使用。该站点最初的设计并没有考虑到这样的扩展，也不是最初为如此广泛的研究人员设计的。该项目的目的是更新和改造GLYCAM-Web建模工具套件，使其成为一个稳定、健壮、信息丰富和直观的实用程序，能够满足糖生物学研究的当前和未来需求。为了实现这些目标，网站的软件将被重新构建，使其由自包含的、经过良好测试的模块组成，这些模块易于维护和修改。它的数据结构将有助于添加新功能。为了使外部研究人员能够在本地使用该软件并对其进行修改以满足他们的需求，将向公众发布构建该网站的命令行界面。我们鼓励用户社区提交和更正。为了使网站能够被更广泛的研究人员使用，特别是那些主要不是计算机科学家的研究人员，一些功能将被添加或增强，网站文档将根据用户的要求大大扩展。要添加或增强的特性包括更智能的错误检查、简化复杂结构的构建、增加支持的文件格式的数量，以及与外部网站的接口。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Carbohydrates decorate proteins and cell surfaces serving as recognition entities for disease and immune processes, are implicated in cell aging and are used as biological signal carriers. One reason they are useful in so many ways is that they can adopt a staggering variety of shapes. Partly because of their importance to biological systems, and partly because of their structural complexity, it is critical that scientists, especially those studying their biological roles, be able easily to generate accurate and useful 3D models of them and their complexes with proteins. However, because of the structural complexity of carbohydrates, generation of these models is very difficult. Even researchers who are comfortable with computer modeling of biological systems can find the task daunting. It is not sufficient, however, only to facilitate accurate modeling for computational specialists. In order to overcome the barrier to adoption of such methods by a broad base of researchers, it is important that the software be intuitive and provides guidance in appropriate use. The GLYCAM-Web suite of online tools (www.glycam.org) has been making steps toward this goal for a number of years. Six years ago, it began as an in-house tool for the Woods carbohydrate modeling research group. Shortly thereafter it was released publically as an online utility free of charge. Site statistics have been gathered for approximately 5 years, and typically averages 400-500 visits each month. Based on support requests, solicited user letters, and references to the site found in academic journals, it is primarily used by persons engaged in biological research. The site was not initially designed with the anticipation of such expansion, nor was it initially intended for such a wide base of researchers. The purpose of this project is to update and transform the GLYCAM-Web suite of modeling tools into a stable, robust, informative and intuitive utility that is capable of meeting the current and future needs of glycobiology research. To achieve these goals, the site's software will be restructured so that it is built of self-contained, well-tested modules that are easy to maintain and modify. Its data structure will facilitate the addition of new functionality. To enable external researchers to use the software locally and modify it to meet their needs, the command-line interface on which the site is built will be released to the public. Submissions and corrections from the user community will be encouraged. To make the site usable by a wider variety of researchers, notably that are not primarily computer scientists, several features will be added or enhanced and site documentation will be greatly expanded based on user requests. Among the features to be added or enhanced are smarter error- checking, simplified builds of complex structures, an increased number of supported file formats, and interfaces with external web sites.