Database

GOLD.db: genomics of lipid-associated disorders database

Hubert Hackl , Michael Maurer , Bernhard Mlecnik , Jürgen Hartler , Gernot Stocker , Diego Miranda-Saavedra and Zlatko Trajanoski

Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics and Christian-Doppler-Laboratory for Genomics and Bioinformatics, Graz University of Technology, Petersgasse 14, 8010 Graz, Austria

author email corresponding author email

BMC Genomics 2004, 5:93doi:10.1186/1471-2164-5-93

Published:	10 December 2004

Abstract

Background

The GOLD.db (Genomics of Lipid-Associated Disorders Database) was developed to address the need for integrating disparate information on the function and properties of genes and their products that are particularly relevant to the biology, diagnosis management, treatment, and prevention of lipid-associated disorders.

Description

The GOLD.db http://gold.tugraz.at webcite provides a reference for pathways and information about the relevant genes and proteins in an efficiently organized way. The main focus was to provide biological pathways with image maps and visual pathway information for lipid metabolism and obesity-related research. This database provides also the possibility to map gene expression data individually to each pathway. Gene expression at different experimental conditions can be viewed sequentially in context of the pathway. Related large scale gene expression data sets were provided and can be searched for specific genes to integrate information regarding their expression levels in different studies and conditions. Analytic and data mining tools, reagents, protocols, references, and links to relevant genomic resources were included in the database. Finally, the usability of the database was demonstrated using an example about the regulation of Pten mRNA during adipocyte differentiation in the context of relevant pathways.

Conclusions

The GOLD.db will be a valuable tool that allow researchers to efficiently analyze patterns of gene expression and to display them in a variety of useful and informative ways, allowing outside researchers to perform queries pertaining to gene expression results in the context of biological processes and pathways.