Databases

What is a database?

In simple terms, a database is an electronic filing system. It allows a user to quickly store, search, retrieve, exchange and remove data. An application that manages a database (DB) is called a DBMS (Database Management System). The big biological databases can be queried through the Internet.

Why are there so many biological databases?

Biological data is very diverse and is growing at an exponential rate. Therefore, no single database can handle all the data and serve the diverse needs of the scientific community. As a result, many different databases exist, each with different capabilities and often redundant data. Right now, there is a large effort underway by different groups around the world to link and interface all the important databases and the data contained within them.

Which databases would I find on BIREC?

Here you will find links and descriptions of various biological databases. We are actively adding more data and improving existing data. All databases are classified using tag based classification. In addition, many database are classified using the traditional ten category method.

Traditionally, life science databases are classified based on their domains into the following categories.

Primary sequence databases

Genome database

Protein / Domain / family

Proteomics

3D Structure

Metabolism / pathways

Ontology

Protein-Protein Interaction

Mutation/Polymorphism

Microarray expression Databases