A Biotechnology Resource facility is proposed for computer analysis of two-dimensional gels. The facility will be based on the software package for 2D gel analysis that has been written at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. The software will be implemented on a VAX computer system with powerful graphics and plotting capabilities. Users will be able to have two-dimensional electrophoresis performed under standardized conditions in the specialized 2D gel laboratory already established at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. After the gels are prepared and scanned by the staff of the facility, the user will have access to a dedicated graphics workstation for as long as needed to complete his data analysis. Each user will be able to compare data from each new sample with data from his own files and with the public databases. During his analysis, the user can make slides and photographs from images displayed on the graphic monitors, and large color maps of gel patterns can be plotted. The core research staff will provide the computer and graphics enhancements, and it will perform research activities to maintain and enhance the protein databases for rat, mouse, and human cells. This data will be available to all users of the facility and to the scientific public. The collaborative users who will interact heavily with the facility have outlined significant research projects in the fields of cellular transformation, differentiation, and mouse development. Service users from a variety of scientific disciplines have also expressed strong interest. The facility will train its users in the computer technology, and it will provide a summer course for students and scientists wanting to learn more about computer-analyzed two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. The planned facility should provide significant progress toward our major objectives, which are to establish large and generally useful protein databases and to disseminate the technology much more generally throughout the biological community. In the long range, the databases will provide greater understanding of the thousands of proteins detectable by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, many of which will be important in the diagnosis of disease.
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