Design and utilization of epitope-based databases and predictive tools

In the last decade, significant progress has been made in expanding the scope and depth of publicly available immunologicaldatabases and online analysis resources, which have become an integral part of the repertoire of tools available to the scientific communityfor basic and applied research. Herein, we present a general overview of different resources and databases currently available. Because of our association with the Immune Epitope Databaseand Analysis Resource, this resource is reviewed in more detail. Our review includes aspects such as the development of formal ontologiesand the type and breadth of analytical tools available to predict epitopesand analyze immune epitopedata. A common feature of immunologicaldatabases is the requirement to host large amounts of data extracted from disparate sources. Accordingly, we discuss and review processes to curate the immunologicalliterature, as well as examples of how the curated data can be used to generate a meta-analysis of the epitopeknowledge currently available for diseases of worldwide concern, such as influenza and malaria. Finally, we review the impact of immunologicaldatabases, by analyzing their usage and citations, and by categorizing the type of citations. Taken together, the results highlight the growing impact and utility of immunologicaldatabases for the scientific community.