Developments to the Gene Ontology

Last week in Pasadena, with WormBase as the host, a group of 50 curators, bio-informaticians, principal investigators and developers from several databases including the arabidopsis, yeast, zebrafish, fly, E. coli, mouse and human databases, gathered to discuss the biological relevance of the Gene Ontology (GO) and improvements to it. Several topics were discussed including how to make the GO more amenable to users and to provide tools and resources, so that users could analyze their data using the GO, in more meaningful ways.  Some of the tools and improvements discussed related to ontology browsers, enrichment tools, and the extension of GO annotations to better capture the biology of a gene.  The GO website itself is undergoing an overhaul to make it better.  To learn more about the GO, visit www.geneontology.org.

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