MAGIC database and interfaces: an integrated package for gene discovery and expression.

The rapidly increasing rate at which biological data is being produced requires a corresponding growth in relational databases and associated tools that can help laboratories contend with that data. With this need in mind, we describe here a Modular Approach to a Genomic, Integrated and Comprehensive (MAGIC) Database. This Oracle 9i database derives from an initial focus in our laboratory on gene discovery via production and analysis of expressed sequence tags (ESTs), and subsequently on gene expression as assessed by both EST clustering and microarrays.