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The Bioinformatics Resource Centers (BRCs) are a group of five Internet-based research centers established in 2004 and funded by NIAID (the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID, ) is one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. NIAID's mis ...
.)Overview, Bioinformatics Resource Centers
, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), January 10, 2008. The BRCs were formed in response to the threats posed by emerging and re-emerging
pathogen In biology, a pathogen (, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of"), in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a Germ theory of d ...
s, particularly
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the National public health institutes, national public health agency of the United States. It is a Federal agencies of the United States, United States federal agency under the United S ...
(CDC) Category A, B, and C pathogens,CDC Bioterrorism Agents and Diseases (By Category)
, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Department of Health and Human Services), accessed July 8, 2008. and their potential use in
bioterrorism Bioterrorism is terrorism involving the intentional release or dissemination of biological agents. These agents include bacteria, viruses, insects, fungi, and/or their toxins, and may be in a naturally occurring or a human-modified form, in mu ...
. The intention of NIAID in funding these
bioinformatics Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field of science that develops methods and Bioinformatics software, software tools for understanding biological data, especially when the data sets are large and complex. Bioinformatics uses biology, ...
centers is to assist researchers involved in the experimental characterization of such pathogens and the formation of
drugs A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalation, injection, smoking, ingestio ...
,
vaccines A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verified. A vaccine typically contains an ag ...
, or diagnostic tools to combat them. The main goals of the BRCs are as follows: 1) To create comprehensive
databases In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and ana ...
of reliable, up-to-date bioinformatic data ( genetic, proteomic,
biochemical Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, ...
, or microbiological) related to the pathogens of interest;
2) To provide researchers with easy access to this data through Internet-based search and data retrieval
user interfaces In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine fro ...
;
3) To provide researchers with relevant, state-of-the art computational tools for bioinformatic analysis of these data. Currently there are two BRC contracts awarded, one for bacteria and viruses, and the other for vectors, Eukaryotic protozoan and fungal pathogens and host response to pathogen infections.


See also

*
National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...
*
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID, ) is one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. NIAID's mis ...
*
Bioinformatics Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field of science that develops methods and Bioinformatics software, software tools for understanding biological data, especially when the data sets are large and complex. Bioinformatics uses biology, ...
* Categories of biological agents


References

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External links


NIAID home page

Bioinformatics Resource Centers
The NIAID page describing the goals and activities of the BRCs
VEuPathDB
Eukaryotic Pathogen, Vector and Host Informatics Resources
BV-BRC
Bacterial and Viral Bioinformatics Resource Center National Institutes of Health Medical research organizations Organizations established in 2004 Bioinformatics organizations