About The BioToolKit

The BioToolKit, an annotated database of over 1200 online resources of interest to molecular biologists and neurobiologists, is an expanded, updated version of the book BioInformation on the World Wide Web 1997: An Annotated Directory of Molecular Biology Tools by Cynthia S. Smagula, Ph.D. (BIOTA Publications). The author is a molecular biologist interested in biomacromolecular structure, an interest developed while an associate in the laboratory of Johann Deisenhofer, Ph.D. at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

The book was the product of almost two years of full-time online bioinformation research (read cybercruising) that began in 1995 when the Netscape browser and free molecular structure viewers such as RasMol became available. Conversations during a short course at Harvard in 1995 indicated few scientists had the time to track the development of Internet research resources, and at this point the book self-organized into ten chapters covering everything from gateway sites to e-forms for grants.

The idea of developing the core molecular research resource chapters into an online database- the BioToolKit - evolved during meetings with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press and BioSupplyNet. The BioToolKit is now hosted exclusively by the BioSupplyNet web site.

Divided into four sections, Nucleic Acid Analysis, Genomics Resources, Protein Structural Imaging and Analysis, and the recently added Neuroinformatics section, the BioToolKit captures the simultaneous movement toward micro-description of molecular differences and macro-description of complex systems, as well as emerging multi-level applications that will someday enable seamless navigation of macro- and micro-data.