NIAID Bioinformatics Resource Centers for Biodefense and Emerging or Re-Emerging Infectious Diseases: An Overview

Over the past few years NIAID has launched a number of initiatives to provide comprehensive genomics resources to the scientific community conducting basic and applied research on organisms considered agents of bioterrorism or causing emerging or re-emerging diseases. The availability of genome sequences of pathogens, pathogen vectors and their disease hosts has opened up new research opportunities and will allow scientists to systematically examine biological systems, such as those involving host immune response to pathogen infection or to vaccination. There is a growing need for integrating genomics, proteomics, biochemical and microbiological information to facilitate the interpretation of the data and generate new scientific hypotheses and ultimately new targets for diagnostics, drugs or vaccines.

The NIAID Bioinformatics Resource Centers (BRCs) will focus on data related to multiple organisms selected from the NIAID lists of Category A-C priority pathogens and other pathogens causing emerging and re-emerging diseases. Each Center maintains data related to a selection of pathogens. (See awards page for more information.) Relational databases will be established to collect a variety of data types, such as genome sequencing, comparative genomics, genome polymorphisms, gene expression, proteomics, host/pathogen interactions and pathways. Access to these data and their interpretation will be facilitated by user-friendly web interfaces and state of the art analysis tools. In addition, training opportunities will be offered to the scientific community on the use and interpretation of the data contained in the database and the analysis tools available. The BRCs are supported by multi-disciplinary teams consisting of pathogen domain experts, microbiologists, bioinformaticians and computer scientists. For more information please refer to the original solicitation.

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