Databases, Bio-Grid & System Biology

Biological databases are biological research libraries compiled from scientific investigations, peer-reviewed literature, high-throughput experimentation, and computational analysis. [requires citation] They include data from genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, microarray gene expression, and phylogenetics, among other fields of study. Gene function, structure, location (both cellular and chromosomal), clinical implications of mutations, and similarities of biological sequences and structures are all included in biological databases. The type of data collected by biological databases can be categorised (see below). There are molecular databases (for sequences, molecules, and so on), functional databases (for physiology, enzyme activities, phenotypes, ecology, and so on), taxonomic databases (for species and other taxonomic ranks), photographs and other media, and specimen databases (for specimens).

The Biological General Repository for Interaction Datasets (BioGRID) is a curated biological database of chemical interactions, protein-protein interactions, genetic interactions, and post-translational modifications created by Bobby-Joe Breitkreutz, Mike Tyers, and Chris Stark at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital in 2003 (originally referred to as simply the General Repository for Interaction Datasets (GRID). It aims to provide a single data mapping by providing a complete curated resource for all main model organism species while striving to eliminate redundancy. The BioGRID allows users to search for their desired protein, chemical, or publication and obtain annotation as well as curated data as published in the source literature and gathered by in-house large-scale curation initiatives.

The study of the interactions and behaviour of the components of biological entities, such as molecules, cells, organs, and organisms, is known as systems biology. Scientists have long been fascinated by the order and integration of biological systems. The genomics revolution, which was driven by the Human Genome Project (HGP; 1990–2003) and the availability to biologists of the DNA sequences of the genomes of humans and many other creatures, gave rise to systems biology as a formal, organized field of study. The common realization that organisms, cells, and other biological phenomena have an inherently high degree of complexity also affected the field's development.