June 15, 2005 (Vol. 25, No. 12)
URL:
http://www.nematode.net/index.php
Rating:
Strong Points: Well organized
Weak Points: None
Summary:
If you thought mega-sequencing for simpler organisms was going to stop once the human, mouse, and rat genome sequences were complete, think again. Nematode Net has the ambitious goal of sequencing 315,000 Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs) from 30 parasitic nematode species. Gulp. For those of us who remember the days before there were 315,000 bases sequenced in total, the scale of this project is remarkable. What’s even more impressive is that it is only a moderately sized effort by modern standards. It’s not an unimportant one, however, as nematodes are major human health hazards. A click on a few of the species names will reveal the billions of people affected by them. Organization of the information is great-easy to navigate with pull down menu links from the top of the page and a panel of hyperlinks on the side. Check out the pictures that range from scary/ugly to beautiful.
