An introduction to the Transpath signal transduction browser.
Commercial users can contact Biobase to obtain the database.
It focuses on pathways involved in the regulation of transcription factors in different species, mainly human, mouse and rat. Elements of the relevant signal transduction pathways like hormones, receptors, enzymes and transcription factors are stored together with information about their interaction and references in an object-oriented database. Objects provide a natural way to represent those elements as data. Interactions are modeled as reactant and produce collections of the signal components, or as activation and inhibition pointers, to enable the system to be used encyclopedically or as the basis for simulation. Queries to the database are conducted via the Internet by submitting names of signaling molecules.