ISYS: AN INTEGRATED SYSTEM TO SUPPORT RESEARCH IN GENOMICS

National Center for Genome Resources, 1800 Old Pecos Trail, Suite A, Santa Fe, NM 87505.

We will demonstrate a prototypical system that integrates various bioinformatics resources in a graphical environment. In our demonstration we will show client- and server-side components from The Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR), the Genome Sequence DataBase (GSDB), and NCGR's metabolic pathway resource, PathDB, inter-operating in a way that suggests a bridging of the gaps that currently separate various bioinformatics information resources. The system is designed to enable maximum autonomy for its components, so that each one has the greatest possible freedom to evolve independently of the others, without disrupting the system. At the heart of ISYS is a highly flexible component-based software architecture, which allows the system's capabilities to change according to the set of components that are present, without manual reconfiguration. ISYS is compatible with the CORBA-centric vision being promoted by the Object Management Group's Life Sciences Research Task Force, and indeed will be demonstrated interacting with server-side components via CORBA. Our goal in presenting the system is to acquire feedback to help to drive its evolution, and to elicit interest from potential collaborators.