Using the functional data model to integrate distributed biological data sources
Graham John Kemp, J. Dupont, Peter M. D. Gray · 2002
There is unavoidable heterogeneity in the databanks and databases currently used for biological data collections. The authors are aiming to develop a system that will provide uniform access to heterogeneous databases via a single high-level query language or graphical interface and will enable multi-database queries. They have taken an approach in which high-level code in an object-oriented database system (based on the functional data model) is used effectively as a mediator between distributed heterogeneous databases. The resulting system enables one to ask queries that combine, for example, geometric calculations on three-dimensional protein structures stored locally and access to databanks held at the European Bioinformatics Institute, while making use of existing search engines and indexes when accessing remote data.