About Our Tools

NCIBI provides the software architecture and tools to generate new knowledge about complex biomedical problems at a molecular and systems level. The key objective is to give scientists access to data that will help them gain novel insights into conceptual relationships.

Tools are created from experimental data, biomedical and protein interaction databases, PubMed/Medline literature, text mining natural language processing (BioNLP), and other sources and are integrated through computational methods. In addition to the NCIBI bioinformatics tools, various database resources are also accessible to investigators through Application Programming Interfaces (API) and on request.

NCIBI tools and resources are available free of charge to the research community for internal use. Please refer to the General Terms of Use for details. Additional terms of use may apply to individual tools. For more information, consult the website of the tool in question.

Searching with Biositemaps Across National Centers

NCIBI tools, as well as tools developed by affiliated collaborators and other National Centers for Biomedical Computing, are all catalogued into a Biositemaps directory. Use the Biositemaps search page to search for tools by tool name, tool type/category, affiliation, or other criteria. Tools can be accessed directly from the search results page.

Finding Relevant NCIBI Bioinformatics Tools and Databases

The best starting point for those unfamiliar with NCIBI tools is the "Try Our Tools" page. Here, users will find NCIBI tools and resources organized into categories along with information about how and when to utilize specific tools. Additional features on this site can assist with workflow planning. Links to video tutorials and accompanying documentation are also available on the site, as are cases in our virtual workshop that provide a “walk-through” of the tools complete with example gene sets and data.

Those familiar with NCIBI resources can go directly to the tool they want to use through Try our Tools or the Biositemaps search page.

Educational Resources

NCIBI has developed an array of instructional materials and seminars to help researchers learn more
about specific tools and their applications. These include:

Tutorials – Including Flash videos for on-demand training and training videos available through
YouTube.

Tools and Technology Seminars – Weekly on-site seminars addressing topics of interest to scientists,
bioinformaticists, and developers. All seminars are webcast live, archived, and made available
on the NCIBI web site for future viewing via Flash video streaming.