The International Genomics Consortium’s (IGC) Expression Project for Oncology (expO) has released clinically annotated gene expression profiles for 60 tumor specimens, completing the initial phase of the nation’s first and eventually largest public database dedicated to standardized gene expression data. The clinically annotated dataset is available in the public domain through the National Center for Biotechnology Information web site at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/.

The goal of expO and its consortium supporters is to procure tissue samples under standard conditions and perform gene expression analyses on a clinically annotated set of deidentified tumor samples updated with clinical outcomes and release all data into the public domain without intellectual property restriction.

The large amount of data that are currently produced in the biological sciences can no longer be explored and visualized efficiently with traditional, specialized software. Instead, new capabilities are needed that offer flexibility, rapid application development and deployment as standalone applications or available through the Web.

We describe a new software toolkit - the Molecular Biology Toolkit (MBT; http://mbt.sdsc.edu) - that enables fast development of applications for protein analysis and visualization. The toolkit is written in Java, thus offering platform-independence and Internet delivery capabilities. Several applications of the toolkit are introduced to illustrate the functionality that can be achieved.

The MBT provides a well-organized assortment of core classes that provide a uniform data model for the description of biological structures and automate most common tasks associated with the development of applications in biological sciences (data loading, derivation of typical structural information, visualization of sequence and standard structural entities).

As usual, news are a little slow on sunday. Here's some to keep you happy :)

- UK gov't unsure on open access
- Nesting Begins for Endangered Parrots
- Evolutionary Biologist Ernst Mayr Dies at 100
- Novavax Receives SARS Vaccine Funding From NIH
- Kenyan Government Admits Failure To Distribute Funds To Fight HIV/AIDS

I added a 'latest comments' section just below the Adsense Skyscraper (left column) to help you keep track of the latest readers opinions. I'm also looking for a frontpage poll script; I realize that polls in phpBB forums are registered users only, hardcoded, so I need an alternative. Feel free to suggest :)

An international team of Mayo Clinic-led researchers is first to devise a system that consistently converts the measles virus into a therapeutic killer that hunts down and destroys cancer cells -- and cancer cells only. Their research findings appear as an advanced electronic article of Nature Biotechnology.

The researchers harnessed the viral trait for attacking and commandeering cells, and then redirected the virus to attack diseased, rather than healthy cells. The work was done on laboratory animals implanted with two kinds of human cancer cells -- ovarian cancer and lymphoma -- and is probably still years away from use as a human therapy. But the concept has at last been proved in mice with human cancer tumors -- and that's an essential step toward using this approach to expand and improve human treatments for a variety of cancers.

Interesting application of chronopharmacology :

Oncologists have long thought that cancer treatments tend to be more effective at certain times of day. But they have been unable to turn this knowledge into practice, because they did not understand the phenomenon well enough. Now, researchers have discovered a molecular mechanism that explains why sensitivity to anti-cancer drugs changes with the clock. They said their findings could lead to new drug treatments that may be more effective because they harness the power and precision of the body's internal clock.