Integrating large-scale genotype and phenotype data.

With the completion of the Human Genome Project, a new emphasis is focusing on the sequence variation and the resulting phenotype. The number of data available from genomic studies addressing this relationship is rapidly growing. In order to analyze these data as a whole, they need to be integrated, aggregated and annotated in a timely manner. The Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics Knowledge Base PharmGKB; (< www.pharmgkb.org >) assembles and disseminates these data and their associated metadata that are needed for unambiguous identification and replication. Assembling these data in a timely manner is challenging, and the scalability of these data produce major challenges for a knowledge base such as PharmGKB. However, it is only through rapid global meta-annotation of these data that we will understand the relationship between specific genotype(s) and the related phenotype. PharmGKB has confronted these challenges, and these experiences and solutions can benefit all genome communities.