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Human Genome Project Information Archive
1990–2003

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Human Genome News, November 1992; 4(4)

GnomeView: Visual Representation of Data

GnomeView, developed by Richard Douthart's team at Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) is undergoing beta testing as a user interface to access information generated by the Human Genome Project. GnomeView provides graphical and textual styles of data presentation and displays color representations of genomic maps for review, analysis, and manipulation. It supports both chromosome and DNA sequence maps with data from Genome Data Base and GenBank, respectively. The standard representation of a chromosome map in GnomeView is a stylized depiction of the chromosome's banding pattern. DNA sequence is represented as a number line with features from GenBank as regions and the base pairs as tick marks or letters. GnomeView also provides density maps, a type of color-coded histogram indicating the distribution of objects over an associated genomic map.

GnomeView addresses the problem of moving among databases by using cross references to achieve smooth transition across databases and among different levels of data. Given a GDB locus, for example, GnomeView can retrieve all the associated GenBank sequences, and vice versa. Another unique feature is the ability to magnify any region and scroll maps interactively in either direction. Overlapping labels become separable as the magnification increases. Regions, tick marks, and letters are color coded so that patterns can be discerned more easily. The GnomeView window-based query interface allows the user to specify complex queries through the use of buttons and menus, with minimal text entry.

ASCII flat files are downloaded from the public databases to a local disk via anonymous FTP over the Internet. The local GnomeView database is then loaded from these flat files. The user interacts with the local GnomeView database via a graphical user interface.

GnomeView will be demonstrated at the February DOE Contractor-Grantee meeting in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and will be available to the general community in 1993. For more information, contact Richard Douthart; Life Sciences Center; PNL; Richland, WA 99352 (509/375-2653, Fax: 509/375-3649, Internet: dick@gnome.pnl.gov).


HGMIS Staff

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Human Genome Program, U.S. Department of Energy, Human Genome News (v4n4).

Human Genome Project 1990–2003

The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international 13-year effort, 1990 to 2003. Primary goals were to discover the complete set of human genes and make them accessible for further biological study, and determine the complete sequence of DNA bases in the human genome. See Timeline for more HGP history.

Human Genome News

Published from 1989 until 2002, this newsletter facilitated HGP communication, helped prevent duplication of research effort, and informed persons interested in genome research.