May 12, 2005

Librarians, scientists enter the 'data mine' together

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Librarians will team with researchers at Purdue University next week to learn from international data repository experts more about mining the growing mound of complex biological information, especially in genetics.

Bioinformatics Week 2005, May 16—20, is the first time the National Center for Biotechnology Information and the European Bioinformatics Institute have collaborated with a university for a week of intense learning designed to meet the bioinformatics needs of an entire research community.

The international effort to map the sequence of the 3 billion base pairs in the human genome has driven the growth of bioinformatics. The melding of molecular biology with computer science uses computers to gather, store, analyze and integrate biological and genetic information that can then be applied to gene-based drug discovery and development.

Andreas Baxevanis, director of the Computational Genomics Program at the National Human Genome Research Institute in Washington, D.C., and the event's keynote speaker, said it is impossible to do biology today without at least some command of these techniques.

"Being able to effectively mine genomic sequence data will impact both how people do biology and practice medicine," he said.

Diane Rein, Purdue assistant professor of library science and molecular biosciences specialist, said the high number of large, widely dispersed and constantly rearranged bioinformatics databases has outpaced the ability of researchers to identify and locate the information they need to competitively support their laboratory research.

"Vast opportunities exist to integrate data into an unprecedented research resource if scientists can locate the right biodata with the right search strategy at the right time in their research cycle," Rein said. "In the new age of computer-based laboratory investigation, science research equals information science search, aligning the professions of science and librarianship side-by-side within the bioinformatics information vault. The need for librarians to develop search strategies, protocols and assays is critical to enable success for their research colleagues within science laboratories."

Purdue and many other universities, government institutions and pharmaceutical firms have formed bioinformatics groups. Such groups help unravel the mass of information generated by large-scale sequencing efforts under way in laboratories around the world.

At Purdue, the Bioinformatics Initiatives Group consists of library faculty from several disciplines whose growing role is to increase bioinformatics research by improving research skills, including the effective use of databases.

"By being able to better locate and search the right databases, scientists will most likely improve their productivity," said Dean of Libraries James L. Mullins. He said improved research skills could increase the credibility of grant proposals to national research institutes and set Purdue apart as a leader in issues dealing with large databases.

Mullins, who compares current bioinformatics processes to searching the Internet before the advent of the World Wide Web, said the potential for accessing relevant databases worldwide has been relatively untapped – until now.

"By creating a system for identification and retrieval of disorganized large data-set repositories and a structure that overlays the data that is consistant and 'research friendly,' librarians are partnering with scientific researchers to maximize their research efforts," Mullins said.

"It's a role librarians can and must play."

The event schedule and registration information are available on the Bioinformatics Week 2005 Web site.

Writer: Jim Schenke, (765) 494-6262, jschenke@purdue.edu

Sources: Diane Rein, (765) 494-2915, drein@purdue.edu

James Mullins, (765) 494-2900, jmullins@purdue.edu

Judith Shumaker, Libraries Development Director, (765) 494-7987, jschumkr@purdue.edu

Andreas Baxevanis, (301) 496-8570, andy@nhgri.nih.gov

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

Note to Journalists: For more information about Bioinformatics Week at Purdue University, visit the web site.

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