Figure 1.

Overview of WebLab architecture. WebLab is comprised of three main functional modules. (i) Data management module (in red frame) maintains the user data space (My Data and My Literature), and also provides supports for accessing remote databases through BioMart and SRS; (ii) Analysis service module (in blue frame) provides a uniform framework to integrate more than 260 popular bioinformatic analysis tools (including command-line program, Web-service and Grid-service), and supports workflow in both Protocol and Macro models; (iii) Team work module (in yellow frame) keeps track of user shared data, literatures and workflows. Virtual research group (VRG) is designed to help collaborators share their works easily.