Updated Online Tutorials for DBTSS, Pfam and PDB

Comprehensive tutorials on the DBTSS, Pfam and PDB databases enable researchers to quickly and effectively use these invaluable resources.

Seattle (PRWEB) October 30, 2008 -- OpenHelix (http://www.openhelix.com) today announced the availability of newly updated tutorial suites on the DataBase of Transcriptional Start Sites (DBTSS), Pfam and the Protein Databank (PDB). DBTSS (http://dbtss.hgc.jp/) is a public resource for the analysis of promoter regions.

Pfam (http://pfam.sanger.ac.uk/) is a comprehensive database of protein families manually created from multiple sequence alignments and hidden Markov models and PDB (http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/home/home.do) is a repository for a tremendous collection of structural information about proteins and other macromolecular structures. These three updated tutorials, in conjunction with the additional OpenHelix tutorials on ASTD, Entrez Protein and MMDB, give the researcher an excellent set of resources to carry their research from transcript to 3D protein structure.

The tutorial suites, available for single purchase or through a low- priced yearly subscription to all OpenHelix tutorials, contain a narrated, self-run, online tutorial, slides with full script, handouts

and exercises. With the tutorials, researchers can quickly learn to effectively and efficiently use these resources. These tutorials will teach users:

DBTSS

* to examine human promoter regions, and those in selected other species as well

* to locate transcription start sites, promoters, transcription factor binding sites and SNPs

* to use multiple query strategies to identify data of interest to your projects

Pfam

* a variety of ways to search Pfam, including by keyword or by protein sequence

* how to use the information in Pfam to predict functions for uncharacterized proteins

* where you can access domain interaction data in Pfam

* about Pfam Clans, which are groups of domains from a single evolutionary origin

PDB

* how to search for structures and related information using a variety of strategies

* to understand the results pages

* how to access various tools to visualize and examine structural details

To find out more about these and other tutorial suites visit the

OpenHelix Tutorial Catalog (http://inter.viewcentral.com/events/cust/catalog.aspx?cid=openhelix) and OpenHelix (http://www.openhelix) or visit the OpenHelix Blog (http://www.openhelix.com/blog) for up-to- date information on genomics.

About OpenHelix

OpenHelix, LLC, provides the genomics knowledge you need when you need it. OpenHelix currently provides online self-run tutorials and on-site training for institutions and companies on the most powerful and popular free, web based, publicly accessible bioinformatics resources.

In addition, OpenHelix is contracted by resource providers to provide comprehensive, long-term training and outreach programs.

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