Sites of interest on the World Wide Web–edited by Rick Neubig and David Roman
Protein Purification
Need to purify a polypeptide? Dr. Mario Lebendiker at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has assembled The Protein Purification Facility, packed with relevant information (http://www.ls.huji.ac.il/~purification/Purification_Protocols.html). This site includes a plethora of information from purification strategies, recombinant protein methods, purification of DNA binding proteins as well as a cache of chromatographic purification information. Also included are over 100 links, including guidelines for the storage of purified proteins and a comprehensive assembly of manufacturer information about commercial purification products. Anyone practicing the art of protein purification should find this site very helpful.
Hangin’ out at the Biobar
The Biobar (http://biobar.mozdev.org/) is a browser add-on for Mozilla-based browsers, such as Firefox and Netscape. This tool is presented as a bioinformatics powerbrowsing toolbar. Developed by the Mozilla development team (mozdev.org), this tool is sure to be popular among the research crowd. The power of Biobar lies in its integrative design, whereby it sits at the top of the browser window, always at the ready. The Biobar search tool allows the user to search within 26 different biological databases, including NCBI databases (such as PubMed), as well as an array of structure, sequence, and functional databases from around the globe. The convenient drop-down menus from the main toolbar allow specific databases to be searched, thus retrieving results most relevant to an individual interest. The Biobar also has links to data caches for nucleotide, protein, and even 3D structural protein data. In addition, the menu links to sites with sequence and structure analysis tools. As with most offerings from mozdev.org, Biobar suggestions and bug reports are necessary for continued development of this handy tool, so be sure to report any problems or ideas!
Internet Resources for General Lab Protocols
If you’re attempting to tackle a new research strategy, several sites on the Internet provide useful links, product information, tips, and general procedures for a wide range of biological, biochemical, and pharmacological protocols. The Protocol Online is one convenient site (www.protocol-online.org), providing a gateway to information about animal protocols, general lab techniques, media and solution recipes, as well as information about histology, imaging techniques, and protocols that are grouped using organism specificity such as Drosophila, C. Elegans, and Yeast. In addition to these resources, the Protocol Online Web site hosts a BioForum for researchers to ask and answer questions in a bulletin-board format. This provides a great resource for general questions as well a place to help troubleshoot experiments. Users can create a login account, or simply browse the messages as a guest.
- © American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Theraputics 2004
