LabBook has released version 2.0 of their OSU Human Genome Database (OHGD), which lets users search the human genome by chromosomal location, function, expression profile, a variety of markers including disease markers, Gene Ontology criteria, accession name or ID and disease phenotype.
LabBook is an XML-powered life science informatics and information provider for the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and academic life science researcher. The database and its associated search and visualization tools are accessible through eLabBook’s Genomic Suite and the entire database and query system can be licensed for on-site installation. Written entirely in Java, the search and visualization tools are available for a variety of platforms, including Mac OS X.
The core of the OHGD consists of the underlying human genome draft sequence data and LabBook’s proprietary EST assemblage, which results in transcripts 1.7 times larger than those found in Unigene, according to Dr. Adel Mikhail, LabBook’s senior vice president of business development. Those allow for more precise positioning of the approximately 70,000 human transcripts along the human genome draft, he said. LabBook’s proprietary EST assembly system was also be used to reconstruct over 31,000 mouse transcripts which were positioned on the human genome draft allowing for the discovery of homologous human genes that are not observed in the human cDNA libraries.
OHGD 2.0 annotation includes PFAM domains and Unigene and SAGE expression information as well as a cross-referencing of over 70,000 human transcripts. LabBook’s annotation of the human genome draft includes mapping of the EBI human proteome as well as the fruit fly, nematode, yeast, and E. coli proteomes and LabBook’s proprietary Mouse and Rat EST assemblages to the human genome.
Also included are 17,000 known genes from Refseq with intron/exon structure mapping, 1.3 million SNPs and over 75,000 cytogenetic markers. LabBook’s analysis of the human genome draft also includes determination of sequence repeats and CpG islands, as well as gene predictions created with two separate gene prediction algorithms.