April 15, 2005 (Vol. 25, No. 8)
URL:
http://open2dprot.sourceforge.net/doc/home.html
Rating:
Strong Points: Great idea
Weak Points: Under construction
Summary:
Speaking of large datasets, 2-D gel electrophoresis is another collection of a vast amount of biological information. Comparable at a superficial level to microarrays for proteins, 2-D gels provide excellent information about proteome expression, and, in addition, provide a tool for automated mass spectral analysis of all of the proteins of an organism. 2-D gels are tricky to run and in many cases are not distributed freely among researchers. The Open2Dprot site aims to cut through secrecy by providing ready open source access to freely available 2-D gel information. The site appears to be “under construction,” so my purpose in describing it here is to encourage readers to participate in the effort. Like any open source project, Open2Dprot can only be as good as the generosity and number of people supporting it.
