Development of an Integrated Database Management System for Biodefense Research

This Phase I SBIR grant proposal is submitted in response to the need for a database resource that can house, import, query, and manage data from diagnostics related to biological threat detection. Such a project for military force health protection requires the creation of a flexible, relational database resource, with dedicated import tools, query systems, and data management tools. This proposal focuses on threat detection, species identification, and data management. It addresses organisms such as Anthrax, Clostridium, Yersinia, Variola, Francisella, Ebolavirus, Lassavirus, Brucella, Salmonella, E. coli, Coxiella, Burkholderia, Vibrio, Cryptosporidium, Ricinus, Rickettsia, encephalitis virii, and others. We will build a robust, extensible web application and relational database resource, called BioDefBase(TM), which uses novel biological computational analysis tools, and is focused on data used to identify pathogens, such as that from microarrays, host expression response assays, protein arrays, PCR experiments, and immunological approaches such as ELISA. The BioDefBase analysis tools will be focused on specific data types, and on visualizations designed to assist the scientist and technician in assay interpretation, experiment design, pathogen identification, and threat detection. With the creation of BioDefBase, researchers and technicians will have a flexible database solution to store, search, manage, and maintain diagnostic bioassay data.