MetaBase

MetaBase provides a curated, community-maintained repository of over 2000 biological databases to catalog and facilitate discovery of resources used in genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and systems biology.

Key Features:

• Community-Curated Content: Community contributions and annotations are used to expand and update entries across the repository.
• Structured Entries with Annotations: Entries use predefined templates to ensure consistent structure and allow user annotations and comments.
• Searchable and Queryable Interface: The resource supports diverse queries to locate specific databases and explore related resources.
• Regular Updates and Synchronization: MetaBase is synchronized annually with the static Molecular Biology Database Collection provided by Nucleic Acids Research (NAR).
• Historical Foundation and Growth: The initial release incorporated content from the 2007 Nucleic Acids Research Database Issue, with approximately 100 databases manually curated from literature and user contributions adding over 240 additional databases.

Scientific Applications:

• Genomics: Facilitates discovery and selection of genomic databases and resources.
• Proteomics: Provides a catalog of proteomics databases to support resource identification and comparison.
• Metabolomics: Enables locating metabolomics databases relevant to experimental and analytical workflows.
• Systems Biology: Supports integration and selection of databases used in systems-level analyses.

Methodology:

Content is managed using MediaWiki technology with predefined templates, synchronized annually with the static Molecular Biology Database Collection (NAR), and maintained through manual literature curation (≈100 entries) plus community contributions (over 240 additions), with contributions from 19 significant contributors acknowledged.