One of the tasks undertaken by the Michigan Proteomics Consortium, under Phil Andrew’s direction, is the creation of PRIME, a centralized, web-based resource for tracking and managing the data generated by proteomics research projects. In the process of protein analysis, from running gels to digesting selected proteins and running mass-spectrometer analyses for protein identification, large amounts of data are generated.

Mass spectrometers at the University of Michigan will generate terabytes of data over the next couple of years. MCBI is collaborating with the MPC to create a proteomics database that can handle the networking, growth, security, mirroring and archiving requirements for the transfer and analysis of these large datasets. This pilot project will be recreated at additional Michigan sites after the proof-of-concept stage is completed.

The database will serve as a portal for publishing Michigan researcher’s proteomics data to the world over the web, and if successful, can grow into a resource for other researchers to publish to also. In order to help guarantee success, MCBI is incorporating the latest in distributed computing architecture and networking into the design of this portal, including GRID and Internet 2 concepts. This database is a pilot for our bioinformatics architecture project, a research project that explores the best hardware and middleware architectures for bioinformatics communication and analysis.