The Biocurator: Connecting and Enhancing Scientific Data

Abstract

From Impressionism and Pop Art to phosphorylation sites and interacting atom pairs, the realm of curation has been expanded. The recent growth of bioinformatics, driven by exponentially growing data, advanced computing techniques, and increased funding from private and governmental organizations, has created the need for novel strategies to adequately capture, store, and analyze the multitude of data present in the scientific literature. To meet this challenge, the number and scope of scientific databases has soared in recent years, creating a new profession, the biocurator. Indeed, the present emphasis on expanding computational resources, capable of managing and analyzing complex biological data, presents an ever-growing demand for biocurators capable of interpreting the increasingly complex scientific literature and extracting relevant data in an efficient, yet consistent, manner.