Bringing biocuration to China.
Zhang Zhang, Weimin Zhu, Jingchu Luo
Author Information
- Zhang Zhang: CAS Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China. Electronic address: zhangzhang@big.ac.cn.
- Weimin Zhu: Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100730, China; Taicang Institute of Life Sciences Information, Taicang 215400, China.
- Jingchu Luo: College of Life Sciences and Center for Bioinformatics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Biocuration involves adding value to biomedical data by the processes of standardization, quality control and information transferring (also known as data annotation). It enhances data interoperability and consistency, and is critical in translating biomedical data into scientific discovery. Although China is becoming a leading scientific data producer, biocuration is still very new to the Chinese biomedical data community. In fact, there currently lacks an equivalent acknowledged word in Chinese for the word "curation". Here we propose its Chinese translation as (Pinyin) "shěn biān", based on its implied meanings taken by biomedical data community. The 8th International Biocuration Conference to be held in China (http://biocuration2015.tilsi.org) next year bears the potential to raise the general awareness in China of the significant role of biocuration in scientific discovery. However, challenges are ahead in its implementation.
Biomedical Research
China
Database Management Systems
Databases, Genetic
Databases, Protein
Humans
Workforce
