The MAGE gene expression specification worked its way through some of the final steps in the Object Management Group’s standardization process at the most recent meeting of the OMG’s Life Sciences Research Domain Task Force in Anaheim, Calif., January 29-31.
Scott Markel, principal software architect at Lion Bioscience and co-chair of the OMG LSR, told BioInform that the joint revised submission for MAGE (microarray gene expression) made it through the LSR task force and architecture board and all that remains is for the domain technical committee to approve it and the board of directors to vote on its adoption.
In addition, the specification for genomic maps received approval by the board of directors, making it fully available because there is now an implementation by LSR co-chair David Benton of GlaxoSmithKline. Implementations for the macromolecular structure and bibliographic query service specifications are also available now and need only board of director approval as well.
The LSR has put together a working group for liaison issues, led by Douglas Greer of the San Diego Supercomputer Center and Richard Scott of DeNovo Pharmaceuticals. The working group is principally charged with the OMG LSR’s discussions with the I3C. While these discussions are ongoing, Markel said the particulars of interaction haven’t been finalized because the I3C hadn’t yet emerged as a formal organization at the time of the most recent meeting (see brief on p. 8).
Also on the table in Anaheim were plans for the OMG’s Objects in Bio- and Chem-informatics meeting, slated for the fall. Markel said OiBC 2002 would precede the general OMG meeting in either Helsinki in September or Washington, DC, in November.
The OMG LSR will next convene in Orlando, Fl., June 24-28.
— BT