http://www.MaizeLink.org: A Searchable Database Linking Maize Experts from
Around the World.
Makhijani, R., Wight, C., Radford, D., Kajenthira, A., Papineau, E., Raizada,
M.N., University of Guelph, Canada
We have developed a searchable database, online at www.MaizeLink.org, linking
maize experts with their colleagues from around the world. Developed at the
University of Guelph, the aim of MaizeLink.org is to provide an online
environment where researchers can share their challenges, questions and
resources with other researchers across sub-disciplines.
MaizeLink.org provides a very easy to use searchable interface to access
researcher information from 80 sub-disciplines, including molecular genomics,
abiotic stress, agronomy, breeding, ecology, food safety, nutrition, plant
disease, agribusiness and social issues. Users have the ability to search by
name, institution, country, research keyword or area of technical expertise.
Alternatively, users may browse by research subject area. Query results consist
of a researcher list linking to individual profile pages. A profile page
contains the following customized information, some of which is entered into
the database by researchers at the time of registration:
•researcher contact details
•a summary of a researcher's key challenges
•a summary of the researcher's interests
•links to the best introductory publications or URLs in the researcher's area of
interest or technical expertise
•links to a researcher's favorite URLs
•links to useful technical protocols
In addition, a query auto-generates the following information:
•links to researcher publications in popular databases (e.g. PubMed, Agricola,
MaizeGDB)
•links researcher patents (e.g. U.S., European, Japanese and Worldwide patent
databases)
•researcher grant abstracts from around the world
MaizeLink.org integrates a bulletin board, a forum to post messages or questions
and exchange information online. The bulletin board is completely searchable.
Our objective is to make the MaizeLink bulletin board the central communication
portal for the world's maize research community by pooling expertise from
diverse subdisciplines.
MaizeLink also includes LifeSciLink, a function that provides access to
publications, patents and grant abstracts for all researchers in the life
sciences, not only those registered in MaizeLink. A user simply enters a
researcher's name, and the system automatically searches a collection of public
databases from around the world, returning results on a single page. This
functionality is also available separately at http://www.LifeSciLink.org.
In addition, MaizeLink incorporates EquipmentLink, a place for researchers to
donate and seek equipment and materials to/from other researchers and educators
around the world. The infrastructure required to perform research can be
expensive, especially for researchers in developing nations. We hope that
EquipmentLink will help to meet this challenge.
Over the coming months, MaizeLink.org will grow to include at least 20 major
crops and research model systems, part of the CropLink Global Initiative. Our
goal is to make CropLink into the world's most comprehensive online
researcher-to-researcher portal for plant science and agriculture.
All of these databases are publicly accessible, and registration is not required
to conduct searches. An effort has been made to include Open Source journal
databases. Having a customized profile page does require registration, but is
open to all graduate students, research fellows and associates, faculty, and
private sector scientists with a shared interest in maize. Because many
researchers, particularly in the Developing World, do not have a webpage/lab
page, the profile page is an attempt to provide a basic, free website for all
of the world's agricultural researchers. All of our databases are secure and
designed to prevent third-party users from sending batch Spam emails.
MaizeLink.org is a nonprofit initiative intended solely for research purposes.
We must feed more people in the next 40 years than we have in the last 10,000
years combined. This great challenge will require more extensive collaboration
between researchers across diverse crops, subdisciplines and nations. It is our
hope that MaizeLink, CropLink, LifeSciLink and EquipmentLink will be useful
tools in this endeavor.
Sincerely,
Manish N. Raizada, Assistant Professor
Rohit Makhijani, Chief Technical Office, MaizeLink
--
Manish N. Raizada, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Canadian Laboratory of Inexpensive Maize Biotechnologies (CLIMB) (new WWW soon)
Department of Plant Agriculture
Ontario Agriculture College
University of Guelph
Guelph, Ontario, Canada NIG 2W1
Campus Location: Crop Science Building, Room 316(office), Rooms 310-312(lab)
Phone: 1-519-824-4120 x53396(office) x54084(lab) FAX: 1-519-763-8933
Email: raizada at uoguelph.ca
Raizada Lab Homepage: http://www.plant.uoguelph.ca/faculty/mraizada/
Dept. of Plant Agriculture Homepage: http://www.plant.uoguelph.ca
