For the past 27 years the NBRF has made pioneering efforts in the applications of computers to the biochemical sciences. These efforts have taken two distinct directions and have lead to the establishment of two separate research groups. These projects include the development of computerized medical instrumentation and the development of the world's foremost protein sequence database. The later research efforts focus on the Protein Identification Resource. This Resource is based on the NBRF Protein Sequence Database and provides the general scientific community with research environment for the identification and analysis of sequence data utilizing protein comparison methods. The Resource has proven fundamental to developments in all phases of biomedical research; it has made major contribution in studies on cancer and carcinogenic processes, AIDS, and many other viral, genetic, and immunological diseases. This information is essential to the basic sciences for developments in areas related to protein and genetic engineering and for interpretation of data generated in large genomic sequencing projects. These activities have spawned other research projects that more closely examine specialized aspects of the data, such as the current project concentrating on the analysis of proteins implicated in cancer-related diseases. It has been demonstrated that the basic methodology for comparing primary sequence data can be considerably enhanced by incorporating of structural information. Research activities in this direction have been hampered due to the lack of a suitable molecular graphics workstation. The long term goals of such activities are to more directly link the NBRF Protein Sequence Database with the Brookhaven Data Bank of protein structural data and to further developed homology based methods of structure/function prediction. The former research group has concentrated on engineering based projects, many of which incorporate image processing. Among its past success has been the development of one of the first whole-body CAT scanners. Its long-term objectives are to investigate chromosomes structure and banding-gene mapping, and to investigate methods of on-line real-time interactive manipulation of 3-D images of CT and MR scans for clinical purposes. The Stellar Super Graphics Display Instrument can be considered as a breakthrough for research investigations that require rapid, high resolution, interactive graphic display and manipulations. As such it will provide an excellent shared instrument that will further the research efforts of both groups.
