Helen Parkinson

Standards for Functional Genomics

Fuelled by the fruits of the genome sequencing projects that are defining the complete sets of genes, transcripts, and proteins within an organism and the advent of highly multiplex technologies capable of measuring thousands to millions of biomolecules per sample in one assay, functional genomics studies are enabling new approaches for studying biological systems. A single experiment can generate very large amounts of raw data as well as summaries in the form of lists of sequences, genes, proteins, metabolites, SNPs, etc. which have been identified by various analytical tests. Managing, reporting, and integrating the results from these experiments present challenges to researchers and bioinformaticians in this relatively young field because the standards and conventions developed for single-gene or single-protein studies do not accommodate the needs of functional genomics studies (Boguski 1999). Functional genomics technologies and their applications are evolving rapidly, and there is widespread awareness of the need for, and value of, standards in the life sciences community. Not only do the widely-adopted standards help scientists and data analysts utilize the ever-growing mountain of functional genomics data sets better, they also are essential for the application of functional genomics approaches in healthcare environments. This chapter provides an introduction to the major functional genomics standards initiatives in the domains of genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, thereby providing a summary of goals, example applications, and references for further information. It also covers the application of standards in healthcare settings, where functional genomics technologies are having an increasing impact. New standards and organizations may come along in the future that will augment or xadsupersede the ones described here. Interested readers are invited to further explore the sxadtandards mentioned in this chapter (as well as others not mentioned) and keep up with the latest developments by visiting the website http://biostandards.info.