WWW issues for conducting sophisticated Bioinformatics analysis

The rapid explosion in the amount of biological data being generated worldwide is outpacing efforts to manage the analysis of the data. Bioinformatics researchers wishing to perform analysis on molecular data have a plethora of local and Internet-based tools available to perform different data analysis, but as researchers often wish to analyze and reanalyze data in a manageable, intuitive way, the problem arises of how to integrate these tools and the different data formats they encode. In addition, there are now new information technologies like XML and CORBA for representing and distributing biological data. The major questions that arise are: i) is it possible to develop a web-based information system for downstream, multiple pass analysis with the emphasis on analysis rather than storage? ii) can this information system facilitate and manage hypothesis driven analysis? iii) can this information system be adaptable to changing information technologies as well as data and information from new bio-technologies? iv) can this information system be able to ensure the analyzed data remains up-to-date in light of new data as well as reporting new information as it becomes available? In an attempt to answer some of these questions, we have designed a web based system Information System for whole Genome Data (ISGD). We discuss relevant issues for conducting sophisticated Bioinformatics analysis, and in addition, we review and discuss the latest technologies, like XML and CORBA, that impact the ongoing development of ISGD.