Database for Glycan Structures

描述(申请人提供)：有越来越多的证据表明，葡聚糖在细胞生长和发育、肿瘤生长和转移、抗凝、免疫反应和微生物发病机制中发挥作用。为了支持将多糖研究作为一个基础领域的重要性，NIGMS通过“胶水赠款倡议”，于2001年资助了功能性糖链联合会[cfg；www.unctionallycomics.org]。CFG由7个科学核心组成，为以下方面提供最先进的设施：糖链分析、糖链合成、筛选糖链-GBP相互作用、研究与糖组分相关的基因表达的独家基因芯片、转基因小鼠的生成和表型鉴定，这些转基因小鼠包含与GBP或糖酶相关的不同基因的敲除。 CFG的一个组成部分是生物信息学核心[设在麻省理工学院]，其主要目标是以有意义的方式获取、整合和传播CFG产生的各种数据集。CFG的生物信息学核心在开发必要的基础设施和软件应用程序方面取得了重大进展，以获取CFG生成的各种数据集，在基于对象的关系数据库中对它们进行注释和组织，并以有意义的方式传播它们。关系数据库是通过Gbps和糖酶分子页面整合和传播CFG数据的中心。分子页面提供来自公共数据库的信息的综合展示，如SwissProt、GenBank、PDB、LocusLink、GEO、OMIM等，以及CFG为给定的GBP或糖酶分子生成的新数据。除了GBP和糖酶分子页面，CFG的重点之一是开发一个数据库，支持和促进组织糖谱中的糖链结构分配。开发类似于GBP和糖酶分子页面的葡聚糖数据库将对糖生物界和其他领域非常有价值和有用。然而，目前，由于可用于多糖的资源支离破碎，并受到许多问题的阻碍，它们的整合超出了资助CFG的“胶水赠款”的范围和资源。 综上所述，可以总结出，有必要迅速开发一个不仅能整合来自CFG不同科学核心的数据，还能整合来自其他已定义资源的数据的葡聚糖数据库。这形成了目前STTR赠款申请的框架，作为第一阶段和第二阶段的快速赠款申请，高度整合，以满足糖组分领域的要求。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There is accumulating evidence for the role of glycans in cell growth and development, tumor growth and metastasis, anticoagulation, immune response and microbial pathogenesis. In support of the importance of the study of glycans as a fundamental field, through the 'glue grant initiative', the NIGMS funded the Consortium for Functional Glycomics [CFG; www.functionalglycomics.org] in 2001. The CFG is organized into 7 scientific Cores that provide state-of-the-art facilities for glycan analysis, glycan synthesis, screening glycan-GBP interactions, exclusive gene microarrays for investigating the expression of genes related to glycomics, generation and phenotyping transgenic mice containing knock outs of different genes pertaining to GBPs or glycoenzymes. An integral component of the CFG is the Bioinformatics Core [housed at MIT] whose primary objective is to acquire, integrate and disseminate, in a meaningful fashion, the diverse data sets generated by the CFG. The Bioinformatics Core of the CFG has made significant progress in developing the necessary infrastructure and software applications, to acquire diverse datasets generated by the CFG, annotate and organize them in object based relational databases and disseminate them in a meaningful fashion. The relational databases have been central to integration and dissemination of CFG data via molecule pages for GBPs and glycoenzymes. The molecule page provides an integrated presentation of information from public databases such as SwissProt, GenBank, PDB, LocusLink, GEO, OMIM, etc. along with the new data generated by the CFG for a given GBP or glycoenzyme molecule. In addition to GBP and glycoenzyme molecule pages, a part of CFG's focus is to develop a database that would support and facilitate the assignment of glycan structures in the glycoprofiling of tissues. Development of Glycan databases similar to the GBP and glycoenzyme molecule pages will be very valuable and useful to the glycobiology community and beyond. However, at the present time, since the available resources for glycans are fragmented and stymied with numerous issues, their integration is beyond the scope and resources of the 'glue grant' that funds CFG. Based on the above, it can be summarized that there is a practical need to rapidly develop a glycan database that not only integrates the data derived from the different scientific cores of CFG, but also from other defined resources. This forms the framework for the present STTR grant application as a fast-track Phases I and II grant application that is highly integrated towards addressing the requirements of the glycomics field.