Plant & Animal Genomes XI Conference

January 11-15, 2003
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

Bioinformatics: Databases
             

IMAD: A MIAME-COMPLIANT MICROARRAY DATABASE

W. M. Keck Center for Comparative and Functional Genomics, University of Illinois, 1201 W. Gregory Dr., Urbana, IL 61801

The Illinois Microarray Database (IMAD) was developed for storing the microarray experimental data and providing Web interfaces for researchers to retrieve, analyze and display their data. The design and implementation of the database follows a suggested standard, the Minimal Information About Microarray Experiments (MIAME). MIAME aims to outline the minimum information required to unambiguously interpret microarray data and to subsequently allow independent verification of this data at a later stage. The goals of IMAD are to serve as a storage site for microarray data generated from projects conducted in the Keck Center and to provide tools for users to manage and analyze the data. Currently, IMAD includes not only fluoresce intensity value, but also experimental details such as slide format, hybridization conditions, and sample preparation. Because the IMAD system is a web-based application, it is easily accessible via typical Web browsers, without any special software. Microarray data can be retrieved and displayed as html tables, Excel spreadsheets or XML files. The architecture of IMAD is multi-tier component-oriented following a Model-View-Controller design pattern. New components of analysis and visualization packages can be easily plugged in. All data are currently stored in an Oracle database. IMAD can be deployed on any platforms with a Java virtual machine, a Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages container (such as Tomcat) and a relational database installed.