A new Drosophila WWW Server

[jacq at LGPD.UNIV-MRS.FR]

Dear Electronic Drosophilists,

We have the pleasure to announce the official release of GIFTS (Gene 
Interactions in the Fly Trans-world Server), a new WWW server mainly devoted to 
topics related to gene interactions in Drosophila. This server will 
progressively propose different services, databases, tools ... related to this 
research area and connected ones. 
  At the moment, the GIFTS server proposes to you an access to the GIF_DB 
database (Gene Interactions in the Fly database), a new, fully annotated, fully 
referenced database of gene interactions involved in Drosophila pattern 
formation. In GIF_DB, the data (captured from the literature) are structured 
into an EMBL- (or SWISS_PROT-) like format, readable both by humans and 
computers. This database already offers hyper-links towards Flybase, EMBL and 
SWISS-Prot databases and more are planned in the future. Release 1.2 of the GIF 
database is presently accessible from this server.

The GIFTS server has been created and is presently maintained by a group of 
people in the Laboratoire de Genetique et Physiologie du Developpement, CNRS 
Marseille, FRANCE, under the scientific direction of Bernard JACQ.

For people having an Internet connection and a WWW browser (the majority, we 
hope), Our server can be reached at the following URL:

http://www-biol.univ-mrs.fr/~lgpd/GIFTS_home_page.html

For people who do not have access to WWW browsers, but nevertheless have an 
Internet connection, please drop a line to Bernard JACQ (jacq at lgpd.univ-mrs.fr).
If several people are in this case, we will prepare a text-only version of the 
database.

This new server will be funded for the next two years, but feedback from users 
will be essential for its maintenance and development. We therefore hope that 
people will find this new server an interesting place and the GIF database a 
useful tool for their research. Let us say that for people who are not involved 
in Drosophila pattern formation research (sadly, a majority of you!), the 
launching of a new interaction database (less annotated, but more general) is 
scheduled for the end of the year. Do not hesitate to react to the GIFTS server 
(applauses, screams, suggestions, encouragements, yes but, ...., are welcome) !

We hope you will enjoy the GIFTS ... WWW Server.


  Sincerely,

Bernard JACQ, Florence HORN and Florence JANODY


Laboratoire de Genetique et Physiologie du Developpement
Parc scientifique de Luminy
CNRS Case 907
13288 Marseille cedex 9
FRANCE

Fax   33 91 82 06 82
Phone 33 91 26 90 55