Spinal Cord Injury-Related Gene Database

We have established a database of genes that are relevant to spinal cord injury because their products, messenger RNAs and proteins, have been shown to be affected by injury, by regeneration following injury, by processes which suppress regeneration following injury, or by therapies applied to spinal cord injuries. The database is named the Spinal Cord Injury-Related Gene Database, or SCIRGD, and is accessible via the internet. The goal of the database is to serve the spinal cord injury research community by compiling information at a single site about genes and gene products relevant to spinal cord injury. A major goal of SCIRGD is to link gene sequence with protein function so that data mining algorithms will be able to determine patterns in the gene products affected by spinal cord injury. These patterns cannot help but predict relationships between proteins and therefore biochemical pathways affected by spinal cord injury. To make this goal possible, and to make SCIRGD as inclusive and broadly useful as possible, we propose to make significant upgrades to its structure and capacities. These upgrades will improve the database, its security, and its services. They will standardize the nomenclature of entries into the database and improve its structure to allow more sophisticated searches and data mining operations.