Resource Identification for a Biological Collection Information Service in Europe

[Home | Publications and References | The Survey | Collection catalogue | Software | Standards and Models]

BioCISE member organisation

The School of Biological Sciences at the University of Southampton has major strengths in biotechnology, with units and research groups in the areas of protein structure, cellular differentiation, transgenic organisms, biocontrol in agriculture, ecological modelling and biodiversity databases. A new Molecular Biology Laboratory, X-ray Crystallographic Unit and Institute for Bioelectrostatics have recently been set up. The Southampton Bioinformatics Data Server provides access to a wide range of sequence and structural databases and analysis programs.

Within the Biodiversity and Ecology Research Division, the staff in the Bioinformatics Laboratory have specialised in the design and implementation of databases for biodiversity data. It contains the Co-ordinating Centre of the International Legume Database and Information Service ("ILDIS"). This team, with its European and other partners, has successfully built the ILDIS World Database of Legumes, supported by SERC, the Leverhulme Trust, RBG Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden. Interacting with an extensive network of specialists and containing 36,000 name entries indexed to 19,000 taxa, ILDIS has become one of the major worldwide species diversity database systems, with possibly the best structured and authenticated data, and seen as a model for other developments. It has delivered products such as the Phytochemical Dictionary of the Leguminosae and the BIDS LegumeLine and ILDIS LegumeWeb online databases.

© BioCISE Secretariat. Email: biocise@, FAX: +49 (30) 841729-55
Address: Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin-Dahlem (BGBM), Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Str. 6-8, D-14195 Berlin, Germany