EGEPT: Monitoring middle east genomic data

EGEPT (Middle East GenBank Post) is a database that monitors submissions to the GenBank nucleotide database from Middle East countries. The data in EGEPT is browsable by country, institute, author, organism, and related publications. Statistics about the dataset is provided and charts that compare the Middle East countries to each other are automatically generated. EGEPT revealed that Qatar, Egypt, Oman, Tunisia, and Morocco are leading in terms of sequence submissions and related publications. However, the total submissions of all Arab countries is greatly lagging behind other Middle East countries and the rest of the world; a fact that reflects the current state of genomics research in Arab countries, and one that calls for a strategic remedy to the situation. EGEPT is accessible at http://www.nubios.nileu.edu.eg/db/EGEPT © 2010 IEEE.