GeneGrid: Grid Based Solution for Bioinformatics Application Integration and Experiment Execution P.V. Jithesh, Noel Kelly, Paul Donachy, Terence Harmer, Ron Perrott Mark McCurley, Michael Townsley, Jim Johnston Shane McKee Belfast e-Science Centre, Queen’s University of Belfast Fusion Antibodies Ltd, Belfast Amtec Medical Ltd, Belfast { p.jithesh, n.kelly, p.donachy, t.harmer, r.perrott}@qub.ac.uk {mark.mccurley, michael.townsley, jim.johnston} @fusionantibodies.com shanemckee @doctors.org.uk Abstract 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. 1. Introduction The improvement in genome sequencing and post-genomic technologies such as microarrays has led to the generation of vast amount of biological data. The requirements of storage and the analysis of such large volumes of data have pushed bioinformatics to the forefront of disciplines that need huge computing power and highly collaborative environments. The emergence of grid computing technologies has opened up an unprecedented opportunity for biologists to integrate data from multiple sources, in spatially distant locations, which can be seamlessly analysed leading to a greater chance of knowledge discovery. GeneGrid is a UK e-Science industrial project with the involvement of companies, viz., Fusion Antibodies Ltd. and Amtec Medical Ltd., interested in antibody and drug development. The aim is to provide a platform for scientists to access their collective skills, experiences and results in a secure, reliable and scalable manner through the creation of a ‘Virtual Bioinformatics Laboratory’ [1]. GeneGrid accomplishes the seamless integration of a myriad of heterogeneous resources that span multiple administrative domains and locations and provides the scientist an integrated environment for the streamlined access of a number of bioinformatics