The following websites were selected by students in the 2009 BioC/MicE 5309 classes as the most interesting sites on the UM-BBD Useful Internet Resources page. Each made their choice in February, 2009; their reasons for it are included.

Timothy Bloomquist
Pubmed
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed

I use this website a lot. I first learned about Pubmed back in 1996 during
college and found it to be a great resource to start with when researching
a topic. Since then I have continued to find the database very useful.
When starting to look into a topic for my job, my first stop is always
Pubmed. It has one of the most comprehensive listings of journal articles
relating to medical and biotechnology research. Along with being a very
complete article database it is also interconnected with the other
government institute databases through Entrez. This makes finding a lot of
information fast and efficient.

I found the Microbial Genomics at the US Department of Energy website to
be the most interesting. Their GTL (genomics) program studies the
proteins produce by microbial and plant genomes to discover their
capabilities. They want to apply this information to environmental,
energy, health, and industrial applications.

I found this website interesting because it was surprising to me that the
US Department of Energy had this program at all. It is interesting to
think of all the possible ways that microbial/plant genomic products could
help solve problems in all aspects of our society. They have a large
focus on Biofuels which may be very important to our energy future.

Kaci Howard
ARS Pesticide Properties Database
http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=14199

The reason I feel that the ARS Pesticide Properties Database is the most
interesting is because it answered the most questions for me. My dad owns
a lawn service and a farm in Missouri. I worked with him in the business
and on the farm for many years and we used several pesticides. Some of
them had some odd names and I had no idea what they were. It was fun to
look them up now and learn some things that I have been wondering about
since childhood.

I found TOXNET to be most interesting mainly because of the variety and
volume of information available on the site. The site is user-friendly
and has many useful and convenient search features allowing for multiple
databases to be search simultaneously. Additionally, TOXNET includes links
to PubMed allowing the user to easily find literature references about a
given substance or topic. TOXNET contains multiple databases including a
database of information on potentially hazardous chemicals, toxicity data,
environmental fate information, human exposure data, regulatory
requirements and a great variety of other information. Additionally there
is a database of carcinogenic health risk information from the EPA, a
database of human health risk assessment and a database from National
Cancer Institute (NCI) containing chemical records with carcinogenicity,
mutagenicity, tumor promotion, and tumor inhibition test results.
Additionally, there is a toxicology database containing genetic toxicology
test results and a household products database that provides information
on the potential health effects of chemicals found in common household
products. Further still TOXNET contains a database of occupational
toxicology, a database of drugs and chemicals to which breastfeeding
mothers may be exposed and a literature and a carcinogenic potency
database. Finally, there is an interactive guide to commonly encounter
toxic substances found in every-day life for the general public.

This site provides a wide array of information about microbiology and
presents it in an engaging fashion. The site was developed as a teaching
supplement for Jim Deacon of the Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology
at The University of Edinburgh. Because of this, it is arranged in a
manner that is ideal for individuals without a significant amount of
experience in the field of microbiology. While I have taken multiple courses in
biochemistry, I have very little specific experience with microbiology,
and as a result I found this site provided a useful experience. While
there are definitely more useful websites to pursue if one wishes to
acquire in-depth information related to a specific microbial species' metabolic
pathways, this site was a great way to casually learn interesting
information about microbiology in general.

One aspect of this site that I particularly enjoyed was the links to
numerous topics related to microbiology including specific microbial
species and their commercial, economic and societal impacts. One page
within The Microbial World that I found interesting was entitled
'Penicillin and other antibiotics.' In particular, the images of the
antibiotic testing rings demonstrating the development of
novobiocin-resistance through the presence of bacterial colonies growing
within the zone of growth inhibition provided a new perspective on the
drug-development process and difficulty that arises within that field.

Of all the sites I visited, BRENDA appeared to be the most user
friendly and organized. Navigation is made very easy right from the
homepage, where an array of classified search options are located. The
depth of the site also seems quite impressive, from the many search
options to the always present navigational side pane that updates itself
with the progress of your search. Overall information is easily
accessible and intuitive in its layout.

I like the KEGG Pathway Database because for every pathway of interest, it
provides a manually drawn pathway maps based on present knowledge of
molecular interactions involved. It also provides information on drug
developments, genetic and environmental information, cellular processes,
and diseases that could involve such pathway.

My major is in Microbiology so that is what I find to be very interesting.
I liked this website a lot because it had a good amount of information on
different bacteria. If you go to the general microbiology section, then
to microorganisms, and then to eubacteria, there is a list of numerous
bacteria with links to find out different information on each one.

One of the other things that I like is that there are many different types
of Microbiology categories that you can search for. They have general,
environmental, industrial, food, medical, and veterinary microbiology.
Since I work in the veterinary field I think that this could be very
useful.