Welcome to the SfN Neuroscience Database Gateway!
Databases are of growing importance in neuroscience, as in many other biomedical
research fields. The Neuroscience Database Gateway is a new resource for SfN members,
aimed at promoting awareness and facilitating access to relevant neuroscience databases.
The SfN Neuroscience Database Gateway provides links to five main types of database.
These can be seen by making the appropriate selection in the sidebar or below:
The gateway also includes basic search capabilities, using the
Linked Fields option.
The Neuroscience Database Gateway (NDG) began in 2004 as a pilot project developed
by the Society's
Brain Information Group (BIG). The NDG
is now overseen by the Society's Neuroinformatics Committee
and is hosted at Yale University (by Gordon Shepherd and Luis Marenco). Operational
support for the NDG towards development of a new Neuroscience Information Framework
(NIF) is supported by an NIH contract to a multi-institutional consortium (Daniel
Gardner, P.I.)
The Neuroscience Database Gateway will transition to a new enhanced platform, the Neuroscience Information Framework (NIF), in October 2009. Under development for the past two years, the NIF is a dynamic portal providing access to neuroscience-relevant resources (data, tools, materials) from a single search interface. The NIF builds upon the foundation of the NDG, but provides a unique set of tools tailored especially for neuroscientists: a more expansive catalog, the ability to search multiple databases directly from the NIF home page, a custom web index of neuroscience resources, and a neuroscience-focused literature search function. The NIF is supported by an extensive terminology for neuroscience, the Neurolex (http://neurolex.org), that provides new ways to search and organize neuroscience information. We invite you to visit the NIF site (http://neuinfo.org) and provide feedback that
can contribute to the success of the transition. The NIF is supported by the NIH Blueprint consortium of neuroscience-related institutes.
Acknowledgments
Essential support for the development of neuroscience databases has been provided
by the Human Brain Project, administered by the National Institute of Mental Health
(NIMH). Brain Information Group (BIG) activities were supported by the Wadsworth
Foundation. The Neuroscience Database Gateway (NDG) was created with support
contributed by the NIMH, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
(NINDS), and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).