BMC Genomics 2009, 10(Suppl 3):S7 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/10/S3/S7 Figure 5 Checker allocation page. situations that may happen along the way are recorded, discussed, and checked by Directors and PIs of the project. The purpose of this discrete consideration is to work out an approach that avoids the loss of important data or resources as a result of inattentive operation, as well as minimizing the cost of resources and time. A workflow is designed to deal with all kinds of situations that would happen in the experimental process (Figure 8). In each step, an Insert with a specific status defined by the previous experimental result is auto- matically passed to the corresponding experimental pathway, which notifies the downstream user of his/ her coming workloads. Automatic workflow control streamlines the experiments and benefits the process of large quantities of batch analysis. This workflow control also allows a timely report generated by the system for users to visualize the progress of each sample once it is in the procedure. This offers project leaders to analyze the quality and quantity of the experiments so as to improve the protocol in time. With the development of experi- mental research process, we will improve the system to better support researchers to finish tasks intelligently and efficiently. For example, the system will be able to give suggestions or assessments in certain key functions to researchers through a data analysis system. Expandability The MP-PBmice system is developed to record all kinds of experimental data generated in a large-scale project of mapping insertional mutations onto the mouse genome. Initially used for mapping onto the mouse genome, it can easily be used for mapping onto any genome, because the only difference will be in the steps of sampling and blasting. For any other genome, the sample will be the corresponding tissue of the organism of interest, and the genome to be blasted is the genome of interest. Either step would generate the same data types as the experimental procedure discussed in this paper. Only the title of sample, location of the Insert (chromosome No. and position) of the table columns in the database need to be changed for other projects. If the thermal asymmetric interlaced PCR (Tail-PCR) [49] or the ligation-mediated PCR [50] is used for mapping the mutants instead of iPCR, only the titles of the table used to record iPCR results need to be changed to the one in use. In both cases mentioned above, the changes are minimal. The MP-PBmice system is easily modified to archive the information generated from other labs for mapping insertional mutations onto a particular genome of interest. Conclusion The large-scale PB insertional mutagenesis project asks for efficient management of the experimental process and data accumulated. The flow production control is more efficient than the mere collaboration among isolated groups, with each group covering the whole process of new mutant production. A database targeting the lab management specifically for large-scale inser- tional mutagenesis project with flow production control is the key to meeting the demand. In collaboration among three research groups from Fudan University, we constructed the MP-PBmice system to allow researchers to submit data and pass on tasks daily and electronically. The MP-PBmice system was designed and developed with the widely used MPV pattern and lightweight enterprise-level development framework Struts-Spring- Hibernate to ensure the applicability. This system incorporates a strict access-control system and a tight workflow control to ensure the data accuracy and timely information exchange, which are key to the efficiency and success of the project. This system has been in use for five months, and is easily expandable for other large- scale insertional mutation mapping projects. Page 9 of 13 (page number not for citation purposes)