dbZach: A MIAME-compliant toxicogenomic supportive relational database.
Quantitative risk assessment and the elucidation of mechanisms of toxicity requires computational infrastructure and innovative analysis approaches that systematically consider available data at all levels of biological organization. dbZach (http://dbzach.fst.msu.edu) is a modular relational database with associated data insertion, retrieval, and mining tools that manages traditional toxicology and complementary toxicogenomic data to facilitate comprehensive data integration, analysis, and sharing. It consists of four Core Subsystems (i.e., Clones, Genes, Sample Annotation, and Protocols), four Experimental Subsystems (i.e., Microarray, Affymetrix, Real-Time PCR, and Toxicology), and three Computational Subsystems (i.e., Gene Regulation, Pathways, Orthology) that comply with the Minimum Information About a Microarray Experiment (MIAME) standard. It is capable of including emerging technologies and other model systems, including ecologically relevant species. dbZach represents an enterprise toxicogenomic data management system which facilitates data integration and analysis, and reduces uncertainties in the continuum from initial exposure to toxicity while facilitating more comprehensive elucidations of mechanisms of toxicity and supporting mechanistically-based quantitative risk assessment.
Burgoon
Lyle D
LD
Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, National Food Safety & Toxicology Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA.
Boutros
Paul C
PC
Dere
Edward
E
Zacharewski
Timothy R
TR
D000818:Animals; D003628:Database Management Systems; D016208:Databases, Factual; D006801:Humans; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D018570:Risk Assessment; D043922:Toxicogenetics; D014116:Toxicology