AceDB: a genome database management system

The Human Genome Project has spawned many databases using custom software or with conventional data management systems. Surprisingly, amidst this wealth of genome database systems, few ready-made systems are available to a group that wishes to set up its own genome database or even to an individual interested in experimenting with them to learn more about bioinformatics. Many genome database systems are unavailable for distribution or are so specialized to their task that it is impractical to adapt them for use at another site. Jean Thierry-Mieg and Richard Durbin disproved this generalization by designing AceDB-an object-oriented database system-from the ground up to represent genomes and other complex biological data. Application programmers can use its APIs to fetch, examine, and modify data maintained in a variety of AceDB genome databases.