Thousands of biology-related datasets are publicly available. Commonly, researchers want to filter individual datasets to include biological samples that meet specific criteria and examine data for a few variables (e.g., genes, proteins) at a time. Unfortunately, researchers often have a difficult time performing these tasks because datasets are difficult to find, large in size, and stored in a wide variety of formats.
To address this problem, we are developing Geney, a Web-based tool that enables researchers to query such datasets in a consistent and easy manner. WishBuilder is a companion system, which is how we get data into Geney. WishBuilder scripts download data from public Web servers, perform custom parsing operations, and store it in a consistent, queryable format. To facilitate this process, we are enlisting students and other interested researchers to write WishBuilder scripts. The more datasets we prepare, the more useful Geney will be!
To learn more about WishBuilder and how to contribute, please visit this page.