FPbase is a free and open-source, community-editable database for fluorescent proteins (FPs) and their properties. The primary objective is to aggregate structured and searchable FP data that is of interest to the imaging community and FP developers. Each protein in the database has a dedicated page showing amino acid sequence, accession IDs (e.g. GenBank, UniProt), evolution lineages and mutations, fluorescence attributes, structural data, references that introduced or characterized the protein, and more. Excerpts from primary literature can be entered to store key information about a protein that is otherwise difficult to capture within the current database schema.
FPbase can also be used to generate microscope-specific spectraviewers for core facilities or labs. "Microscopes" in FPbase are collections of optical configurations, including filters, light sources, lasers, and detectors, meant to represent the hardware of a specific microscope or other imaging device. Once you save your microscope configuration, you get a personalized spectra-viewer app that you can use to visualize the efficiency of excitation, collection, and predicted brightness of any of the fluorophores in FPbase for your hardware. You can create as many different microscope pages as you'd like and you can share the link to your microscope page with anyone, or embed the app in your website for others to use.
Details
Tool type: Database, Spectraviewer
Created by: Talley Lambert, Harvard Medical School