Briefs

TUCSON, Ariz., Jan. 29 - Part I of the first-ever biohackathon wrapped up this afternoon with a new specification for accessing biological sequence databases across multiple languages and platforms.

The specification, Open Bio Database Access, will give bioinformatics developers a library of modules to ensure seamless access to sequence databases. The spec is being incorporated into the four primary open source bioinformatics projects, BioPerl, BioPython, BioJava, and BioRuby.

Organized and sponsored by Electric Genetics and O'Reilly and Associates, along with the help of other commercial sponsors, the biohackathon kicked off the O'Reilly Bioinformatics Technology Conference taking place here through Thursday. But while most early arrivals for the conference spent the weekend hiking in the nearby Santa Catalina mountains or basking in the Arizona sun, the 20 biohackathon participants spent three full days coding diligently under the fluorescent lights of a stuffy hotel conference room.

See http://www.genomeweb.com/articles/view.asp?Article=200213193116