Bioinformatics Resource Centers for Infectious Diseases

Description This initiative will provide for the continued maintenance, expansion and enhancement of the Bioinformatics Resource Centers (BRCs) program (http: 1/www.niaid.nih.qov/La bsAnd Resources/resources/ d mid/brc/Pages/defa ult.aspx). The BRCs have provided the scientific community with publicly accessible systems that store, update, integrate and display genome sequence data and its annotation, functional genomics and other "omics" data, and other associated data and information for a large variety of human pathogens and vectors of human pathogens and related microbial species and strains, and allow users to query and analyze this data with user friendly interfaces and computational analyses tools. The BRCs have become the public repository of data generated by NIAID-supported genomics programs, and other grants and contracts. Through this new solicitation, continued support of bioinformatics infrastructure and data services for each of the following groups of organisms will be provided: 'I bacterial species 'I viral families 'I protozoan species and fungi 'I invertebrate vectors of human pathogens Within the groups above, the targeted organisms are those in NIAID's List of Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases (http://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/emerging/Pages/list.aspx), which includes NIAID Category A-C Priority Pathogens, and their phylogenetically, closely related species with special emphasis on influenza, Mycobacteria tuberculosis (TB), and malaria. Invertebrate vectors of human pathogens are also of interest. Although proposals that are not directed specifically at the targeted organisms are also responsive to this RFP, offerors must be aware that very limited funding is available for those types of projects. The contractor shall be required to support: 1) maintenance, expansion, and enhancement of the BRC database systems containing integrated data from human pathogens and invertebrate vectors of infectious diseases, including various "omics" and metagenomics data, metabolic and biochemical pathways, pathogen-host interactions, population genetics and genomics, anti-microbial drug resistance, insecticide resistance, epidemiology and surveillance, data from clinical studies of infectious diseases, and all relevant metadata; 2) maintenance, expansion, enhancement, and provision of analysis tools and algorithms as Open Source; 3) maintenance, expansion, and enhancement of user friendly web interfaces for data query, retrieval, and display; 4) provision of bioinformatics services to the scientific community; 5) provision of community outreach activities to expand the user-base and increase the utility of the BRC bioinformatics resources, and 6) interaction with NIAID funded programs.