In the neurosciences, the generation of experimental data relating to neuronal properties - receptors, channels and neurotransmitters - currently far exceeds the means for archiving, analyzing and integrating these data in ways that give insight into the neural basis of brain function. There is an increasingly urgent need to develop a new generation of sophisticated databases and informatics tools for this purpose. The olfactory system is an attractive model for attacking these problems, and we have therefore set up a pilot project entitled SenseLab for this purpose. Over the past six years, progress in this pilot project has led to several types of web accessible databases and tools to enhance our work on the olfactory system. These include: Olfactory Receptor Database (ORDB), for unpublished as well as published sequence data, to aid the effort in the olfactory field to clone and sequence the very large gene family of olfactory receptor genes; Odor Database (OdorDB), a database of odor molecules used to test for receptor affinities in expression systems; NeuronDB, a database of receptor, channel and neurotransmitter properties, to aid in the integration of these data in different compartments of different types of neurons, and to allow searches for specific properties across different neuron types; and ModelDB, a database of neuronal models. Further development of these databases and tools requires an enhanced effort in which single current project needs to be expanded into three parallel projects supported by this Program Project. Project 1 will test specific hypotheses regarding olfactory function at several levels of the olfactory pathway, using current databases and several new databases. Project 2 will be devoted to fundamental informatics research to refine current databases and tools and develop new ones. Project 3 will focus on applying modeling methods to analyzing specific types of neuronal integration, and developing model databases for wider testing of neuronal models of the web. Automated database entry linked to journal publication of neuronal properties will be explored. A Core will provide administrative and programming support. These databases and tools will enhance the understanding of neural mechanisms in sensation. They will be generalizable to other systems, to provide tools of wider use for integrating and searching neuroscientific data.
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