The local site which maintain the copy of data available on remote
site is called mirror site. It update the data on local machines from remote
machines frequently (daily update usually). During updating it only copy
the files change during that period not all files. In other words, a mirror
site is an exact replica of a database or web site. The aim of establishing
mirror sites is to enable an easy access to scientific data, particularly
of relevance to medical biotechnology. There are number of databases of
resources on Internet remotely located in various countries. Most of these
resources are accessible via Internet. However, it is not practically possible
if a user wants to access or download large volumes of data, due to speed
limitations of Internet. Thus, it is essential to mirror important and
frequently used resources at local sites for easy and fast access. Following
four subject has been identified for mirroring.
Immunoinformatics: It
is a coming up area in bioinformatics which allow one to study the immune
system insilico. It play a vital role in drug and vaccine development.
We are actively, collecting and maintaining the databases that contain
the data related to immunology, drugs and vaccines.
Proteomics: We are in
process of identification of the major resources (databases, software and
web servers) available world wide that are commonly used by academicians
for studying the structure, function and identification of proteins. The
commonly used proteomics resources which are freely available to academic
community will be mirrored at UAMS.
Genomics: In past
few years, a considerable number of complete genome sequences of different
organisms belongs to different organisms have been reported. The availability
of these genome sequences provides us the opportunity to annotate, analysis,
and compare these genomes to understand the life. The technology like Microarray
allow us to study the whole genome expression. Its important to manage
and maintain these exponentially growing databases in order to work in
area of genomics particularly comparative genomics. We are in process of
maintaining mirror of important databases in this area.
Public Domain Resources:
In last two decade number of biological software and web servers has been
developed which allow use to analysis their data. It important to maintain
these public domain resources.
