Antonio Casanova

Background Genome projects usually start with a sequencing phase, where experimental data, usually DNA sequences, is generated, without any biological interpretation. The fundamental challenge researchers face lies exactly in analyzing these sequences to derive information that is biologically relevant. During the analysis phase, researchers use a variety of analysis programs typically combined, in the sense that the data collection one program produces is used as input to another program. This is best modelled as a workflow whose steps are the analysis programs. Results This paper addresses the use of workflows to compose Bioinformatics analysis programs that access data sources, thereby facilitating the analysis phase. An ontology modelling the analysis program and data sources commonly used in Bioinformatics is first described. This ontology is derived from a careful study of the computational resources that researchers in Bioinformatics presently use