We have created an open-source peer-to-peer system for bioinformatics analysis. Our system enables researchers across the globe to freely access state-of-the-art algorithms and computational resources. Algorithms are found and new jobs are submitted to remote servers through either Bioperl scripting or a sophisticated Java-based user interface. Furthermore, this system has been designed to provide support to applications that require access to a diverse range of bioinformatics functionality. Algorithm support using this system has been or is being integrated into the Sockeye, OrthoSeq, and Pegasys applications.

Currently, 20-30 algorithms are accessible via this network at multiple nodes in the Vancouver area. Each node's ability to advertise and upgrade new services ensures that users of our system are accessing the most current versions of algorithms (in a few cases directly from the authors). Additionally, each node can customize the methods of sequence retrieval for its clients; typically, we use EnsEMBL for sequence retrieval.

We believe that the peer-to-peer approach can create new and direct communication lines between the biologists who want to use bioinformatics tools and the authors of such techniques themselves. By integrating a web browser into our application, we allow users accessing new algorithms to visit the authors' websites. By utilizing Java and Java Web Service approaches, we are able to easily allow Windows users to access Linux-based tools. If you would like to use this system to advertise and discover algorithms, download the Chinook code from the Genome Sciences Centre.