Completed Genetics & Molecular Biology Infection & Immunity

Cost-effective community access to integrated information for microbial eukaryotic pathogen research .

Funder Wellcome Charity-funded
Recipient organisation University of Liverpool
Funding £1.5M
Period Jan 2016 — Dec 2019

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

Two online databases that help scientists study parasitic diseases are asking for continued funding to expand their reach. These databases—TriTrypDB for kinetoplastid parasites (which cause sleeping sickness and leishmaniasis) and FungiDB for fungal and oomycete pathogens—already serve as essential tools for researchers worldwide. The problem they address is a growing one: as genomic, proteomic, and other high-dimensional data pour in from labs globally, individual research groups cannot easily access, search, or make sense of it all without a central, curated resource. Without such infrastructure, valuable data sits unused, slowing the translation of fundamental discoveries into new drugs or diagnostics. If this grant succeeds, the two databases will be integrated under a single management structure, with staff expanded from four to 6.4 full-time positions. This will allow the same proven platform that supports kinetoplastid research to now serve fungal and oomycete communities at scale. The impact is largely invisible to the public but critical to the research ecosystem: faster data mining, fewer duplicated efforts, and more efficient use of public research funds. The work is infrastructure, not a direct clinical trial—but without it, the pipeline from lab to clinic stalls.

View original technical description
The purpose of this Resource Grant is to combine existing database/data-mining infrastructure with demonstrated expertise in curation/annotation, to provide robust, scalable, cost-effective support for research on both kinetoplastid parasites and fungal & oomycete species to the global research community. It is essential that the ever-increasing wealth of high-dimensional data are fully and efficiently utilised in driving scientific discovery and subsequent translation into tangible advances in the field/clinic. Over the last six years, an innovative UK-US collaboration has yielded TriTrypDB.org now widely recognized as the essential multi-Omics resource for kinetoplastid researchers worldwide. FungiDB.org is a more recent product that offers great potential for these important research communities, too. Both resources leverage infrastructure from the EuPathDB Bioinformatics Resource Centre (EuPathDB.org; which recently received a third five-year contract from NIH). We seek continu ed support for these valuable resources, expanding the four posts now focused on kinetoplastida to 6.4, enabling integrated support of both TriTrypDB and FungiDB. Staff will be embedded in key locations in the UK and US and managed using a common structure, with input from the respective research communities, that has proven highly efficient and successful.

View the original record at the funder ↗

Researchers

Christiane Hertz-Fowler (EPMC Awardee)

Related Research

Grants with similar aims, by meaning.

FungiDB: An integrated bioinformatics resource for fungi and oomycetes
Integrated bioinformatics resources for kinetoplastid pathogens.
Bioinformatics resources for kinetoplastid organisms and their hosts
Kinetoplastid Bioinformatics: Expansion of GeneDB to Support and Enable Post-Genomic Research
24BBR: Integrated bioinformatics resources for fungal and oomycetes pathogens of plants

Original classification

Biomedical Resources Grant

Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.