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Pathema: a clade-specific bioinformatics resource center for pathogen research

Lauren M Brinkac1, Tanja Davidsen, Erin Beck

  • 1J Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, MD 20850, USA.

Nucleic Acids Research
|October 22, 2009
PubMed

Insights

Pathema provides a vital resource for bio-defense and infectious disease research, offering integrated genomic data and analysis tools for NIAID Category A-C pathogens. This platform accelerates scientific understanding and discovery for these critical organisms.

Area of Science:

  • Bioinformatics
  • Infectious Disease Research
  • Genomics

Background:

  • The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) funds Bioinformatics Resource Centers (BRCs) to support research communities.
  • Pathema is one of eight BRCs, focusing on bio-defense and infectious diseases.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To serve as a core resource for researchers studying specific NIAID Category A-C pathogens.
  • To accelerate scientific progress in understanding, detecting, diagnosing, and treating infectious diseases.
  • To provide integrated genomic data and analysis tools for pathogen research.

Main Methods:

  • Development of four distinct clade-specific web resources and databases for target pathogens.
  • Inclusion of publicly available complete genome projects of phylogenetically related organisms for comparative analysis.
  • Integration of web-based analysis tools for data exploration and result computation.

Main Results:

  • Pathema offers comprehensive genomic data for six NIAID Category A-C pathogens: Bacillus anthracis, Clostridium botulinum, Burkholderia mallei, Burkholderia pseudomallei, Clostridium perfringens, and Entamoeba histolytica.
  • The platform provides access to phylogenetically related organisms for extensive comparative genomics.
  • Integrated analysis tools facilitate customized data retrieval, visualization, and computation.

Conclusions:

  • Pathema effectively disseminates pathogen genome sequencing data and comparative analysis results.
  • The resource supports the bio-defense and infectious disease research community by providing essential data and analytical capabilities.
  • Pathema accelerates scientific discovery and progress in the field of pathogen genomics.

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