GeneGrid: grid based solution for bioinformatics application integration and experiment execution

GeneGrid is a collaborative industrial R&D project initiated by the Belfast e-Science Centre, under the UK e-Science Programme, with commercial partners involved in the research and development of antibodies and drugs. GeneGrid provides a platform for scientists, especially biologists, to access their collective skills, experiences and results in a secure, reliable and scalable manner through the creation of a ´Virtual Bioinformatics Laboratory´. It enables the seamless integration of a myriad of heterogeneous applications and datasets that span multiple administrative domains and locations across the globe, and present these to the scientist through a simple user friendly interface. This paper presents how the grid services of GeneGrid are involved in the integration of bioinformatics applications as well as in the creation and execution of in silico experiments. A real use case scenario is also presented, involving the identification of novel members belonging to a protein family, for demonstrating the capabilities of GeneGrid.