Workflows in bioinformatics: Meta-analysis and prototype implementation of a workflow generator

Background: Computational methods for problem solving need to interleave information access and algorithm execution in a problem-specific workflow. The structures of these workflows are defined by a scaffold of syntactic, semantic and algebraic objects capable of representing them. Despite the proliferation of GUIs ( Graphic User Interfaces) in bioinformatics, only some of them provide workflow capabilities; surprisingly, no meta-analysis of workflow operators and components in bioinformatics has been reported