OPTIMAS-DW, MetaCrop and VANTED: A case study for data integration, curation and visualisation in life sciences

Abstract

Since the data volume in life sciences has been growing exponentially in recent years, it is indispensable to develop databases and tools for efficient data integration, curation and visualisation. Focusing on data handling in crop plant research, this paper presents an approach, which combines (i) a data warehouse (OPTIMAS-DW) for integrating experimental data, (ii) an information system (MetaCrop) for manually curated biochemical pathways, and (iii) a visualisation software (VANTED) for integrated data visualisation. The functionality and usability of the concept will be illustrated by a use case.