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Pathway databases differ considerably

NBIC

17 Nov 2011

Studying and mapping the human metabolic network is an essential element in improving our understanding of human health and disease. A number of high-quality databases that contain data on human metabolic pathways have been constructed and have become an important and routinely used tool in biomedical research. Each database however contains part of the puzzle and the overall field would greatly benefit from an integration of all available data. To aid such integration, Miranda Stobbe (Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam) and colleagues have performed the first, systematic comparison of five frequently used human metabolic pathway databases: BiGG, EHMN, HumanCyc, KEGG and Reactome. Their results show the overlap between the databases to be surprisingly low.

Stobbe MD, Houten SM, Jansen GA, Van Kampen AHC, Moerland PD
Critical assessment of human metabolic pathways: a stepping-stone for future integration
BMC Systems Biology 2011, 5:165

 

By: Esther Thole

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