World Wide Web-based access to heterogenous information resources for cytokine research and education

Cytokines are currently the focus of intense research efforts, and information related to cytokine biology is expanding at an extremely rapid rate. The primary literature has become insufficient as a source for timely information, and efficient searches of the older literature are complicated by the nature of cytokine nomenclature. A few computer-accessible cytokine-related data sources have recently been developed, but these are typically limited in scope and not integrated with other information resources. We have developed Cytokine Explorer, a World Wide Web (WWW)-based resource to provide access to and guidance in use of information for research and education in cytokine biology. The resource consists of: (1) a searchable thesaurus of cytokine nomenclature; (2) a cytokine reagent database containing information from academic institutions and commercial sources; (3) a set of links to cytokine-related WWW sites; and (4) a database of functional information retrieval maps for guided retrieval of cytokine information from combinations of heterogeneous sources.