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BioMOBY successfully integrates distributed heterogeneous bioinformatics Web Services. The PlaNet exemplar case.
Mark Wilkinson1, Heiko Schoof, Rebecca Ernst
1James Hogg iCAPTURE Centre for Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Research, St. Paul's Hospital, Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. mwilkinson@mrl.ubc.ca
Plant Physiology
|May 13, 2005
Summary
Non-interoperability hinders genomic analysis. The BioMOBY project, specifically MOBY-S, simplifies data sharing between biological databases and tools by focusing on data structure (syntax) rather than meaning (semantics).
Area of Science:
- Bioinformatics
- Genomic Data Integration
- Web Services
Background:
- Non-interoperability between online genomic resources is a major bottleneck in large-scale genomic analysis.
- The BioMOBY (Biological Mobile Object Deployer) initiative aims to create an interoperable platform for biological databases and analytical tools.
Purpose of the Study:
- To provide a non-technical overview of the BioMOBY-S (Web Services branch) components enabling interoperability.
- To demonstrate how MOBY-S addresses the challenge of integrating online biological data and services.
Main Methods:
- Deployment of MOBY-S across numerous global data sources.
- Analysis of the nature of web service interoperability in bioinformatics.
- Case study of MOBY-S implementation within the PlaNet consortium.
Main Results:
- Bioinformatics web service interoperability is primarily a syntactic problem, not semantic.
- Specifying data structures (syntax) is sufficient for achieving interoperability between bioinformatics web services.
- MOBY-S has been successfully deployed to integrate plant genome databases and services.
Conclusions:
- A simple, syntactic approach to web service interoperability has overcome a significant barrier in integrative biology.
- MOBY-S offers a practical solution for connecting disparate biological data resources and analytical tools.
- The PlaNet consortium exemplifies the successful application of MOBY-S for integrating plant genomics data.