ABSTRACT
Since 1995, the WU-BLAST programs (http://blast.wustl.edu) have provided a fast, flexible and reliable method for similarity searching of biological sequence databases. The software is in use at many locales and web sites. The European Bioinformatics Institute's WU-Blast2 (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/blast2/) server has been providing free access to these search services since 1997 and today supports many features that both enhance the usability and expand on the scope of the software.
Subject(s)
Sequence Alignment , Software , Computational Biology , Databases, Nucleic Acid , Databases, Protein , Europe , Internet , User-Computer InterfaceABSTRACT
SUMMARY: The European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), and outstation of the European Molecular Biology laboratory, has revamped its web site for the second time since 1997 in order to address increased user demand as well as establishing better uniformity and easier accessibility for the ever growing number of users and services it offers to the community. A GRID-like hardware infrastructure has been put in place to provide round the clock services in a redundant and reliable fashion. AVAILABILITY: http://www.ebi.ac.uk/
Subject(s)
Academies and Institutes , Database Management Systems , Databases, Genetic , Internet , Sequence Analysis/methods , Software , Europe , Information Storage and Retrieval/methods , Molecular Conformation , Protein Conformation , Sequence Alignment/methodsABSTRACT
The European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) provides numerous free-of-charge, publicly available bioinformatics services that can be divided into the following categories: ftp downloads; data submissions processing and biological database production; access to query; analysis and retrieval systems and tools; user support; training and education and industry support through EBI's SME program. These services are all available at the website. It is imperative that EBI's data as well as the tools to analyse it efficiently are made available in a free and unambiguous way to the scientific community. An important part of the EBI's mission is to make this happen in a fast, reliable and efficient manner. This paper serves as a brief introduction to each of these services.
