CCP4 and BIOXHIT

BIOXHIT started in January 2004 and is an "integrated project" funded for four years within the 6th Framework Programme of the European Commission. BIOXHIT is coordinating scientists at all European synchrotrons and leading software developers in a joint effort to develop, assemble and provide a highly effective technology platform for Structural Genomics. CCP4 is involved in workpackages which aim to implement data management and project tracking in structure solution, and in work which complements the CCP4 Automation Project. The project currently funds one-full time programmer.

As a key part of this work the CCP4i database is currently being expanded and standardised as a Project database for non-CCP4(i) applications operating in a multi-user computing environment. The scope of the data stored in the database - both the raw data and the history record information - will also be extended as part of the project, and visualisation tools will be developed to help users make sense of the data.

The aim is to provide a system which is useful for both ongoing "work-in-progress" structure determination projects (being performed either manually or through automated systems). We are working with a variety of different partners both within and outside of the BIOXHIT project to ensure that the system will be compatible with and useful to other software projects. Currently prototypes exist for the database and the "broker" application which mediates access to it. Work is also ongoing on visualisation tools.

CCP4 is also contributing to work within the BIOXHIT framework on data models for information exchange between programs for the purposes of automation. In February 2005 CCP4 co-organised a workshop which brought together the developers of a number of automated systems to discuss the issues, and the final report from the meeting along with the supporting documents can be found at http://www.ebi.ac.uk/msd-srv/docs/bioxhit05_1.html.

The main BIOXHIT website is at http://www.bioxhit.org. Information about CCP4 and BIOXHIT can be found at http://www.ccp4.ac.uk/projects/bioxhit.html. Please contact Peter Briggs (p.j.briggs@ccp4.ac.uk) for more information about the CCP4 contribution to the BIOXHIT project.