Another essential aspect of the initiative is the FaceBase database. It builds on the lessons learned of other biology-focused databases. But FaceBase must mold its content to the specific interests and needs of craniofacial researchers. That includes learning how best to house data on biochemical, molecular, genetic and imaging studies. It also includes learning how best to display thousands of visual images of tissue morphology, or shape, after a specific gene has been disrupted in zebrafish, mice, and other organisms, a standard approach to determine a gene's function. These images then will be linked to molecular data from other studies and these datasets will be made available to the scientific community. Assembling all of these features will take time.

Steven Scholnick, Ph.D., an NIDCR scientist who administers the FaceBase initiative, said the end result of the database and research consortia will be well worth the effort. "If you sketch out the whole consortium on paper, you can easily see how the projects are mutually reinforcing and how interconnecting all of these diverse sets of data can be useful to the entire craniofacial research community - individual labs won't have to each invent their own part of the wheel and can instead focus on the bigger, systems-level picture" he said. "It's even more exciting to think that this consortium can lead to collaborations we can't yet envision and that it could accelerate our efforts to help families with children born with craniofacial abnormalities."

The principal investigators on the FaceBase Consortium grants are:

Jeffrey C. Murray, University of Iowa and Mary L. Marazita, University of Pittsburgh FaceBase Management and Coordination Hub

Axel Visel, University of California-Lawrence Berkeley LabGenome-Wide Atlas of Craniofacial Transcriptional Enhancers project

Leah Rae Donahue and Stephen Murray, The Jackson LaboratoriesGenetic Tools and Resources for Orofacial Clefting Research project

Scott E. Fraser, California Institute of TechnologyFunctional Analysis of Neural Crest and Palate: Imaging Craniofacial Development project

Linda Shapiro, University of WashingtonShape-Based Retrieval of 3D Craniofacial Data project

David Clouthier and Kristin Bruk Artinger, University of Colorado, Denver; and John Postlethwait, University of OregonIdentification of miRNAs Involved in Midfacial Development and Clefting project

Richard Spritz, University of ColoradoGenetic Determinants of Orofacial Shape and Relationship to Cleft Lip/Palate project

Steven S. Potter, Children's Hospital Medical Center of CincinnatiGlobal Gene Expression Atlas of Craniofacial Development project

Terri H. Beaty, Johns Hopkins UniversityOral Clefts: Moving from Genome-Wide Studies Toward Functional Genomics project

Yang Chai, University of Southern CaliforniaResearch on Functional Genomics, Image Analysis and Rescue of Cleft Palate project

Mary L. Marazita and Seth Weinberg, University of Pittsburgh3D Analysis of Normal Facial Variation: Data Repository and Genetics project

Source: NIH/National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research