MicroGen: a MIAME compliant web application supporting distributed collaborative management and sharing of microarray experiment information

Improvements of bio-nano-technologies and biomolecular techniques have led to increasing production of experimental data. Although routinely performed, high-throughput spotted microarray experiments are complex procedures entailing several protocols and actors with different technical roles. Complete information describing all experimental steps must be orderly collected to allow subsequent correct interpretation of experimental results. We developed MicroGen (http://www.bioinformatics.polimi.it/MicroGen/)> a Web system for managing information and workflow in the production pipeline of spotted microarray experiments. Its core is a multi-database system able to store all data characterizing different spotted inicroarray experiments according to the minimum information about microarray experiments (MIAME) standard. An intuitive and user-friendly Web interface enables the support of the collaborative work required in spotted microarray experiment production.