About:
MetaBar is a spreadsheet and web-based software tool designed to assist users in the consistent acquisition,
electronic storage and submission of contextual data associated to their samples. A preconfigured Microsoft Excel ®
spreadsheet is used to initiate structured contextual data storage in the field or laboratory.
Each sample is given a unique identifier. To enter and update the data at any stage the sheets can be uploaded
to the MetaBar database server. For sample labeling the identifiers can be printed as barcodes.
An intuitive web interface provides quick access to the contextual data in the MetaBar database as well as user
and project management capabilities. Export functions facilitate contextual and sequence data submission to
the International Nucleotide Sequence Data Collaboration databases (INSDC). MetaBar requests and stores
contextual data in compliance to the MIGS/MIMS/MIENS specifications defined by the Genomic Standards Consortium.
MetaBar is developed and maintained by the megx.net team as part of
Microbial Genomics Group at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) in Bremen, Germany.
MetaBar is an interdisciplinary project of biologists and computer
scientists to facilitate:
- consistent contextual data (location and time, when a sample
has been taken) acquisition
- interpretation of sampling events in their environmental
context
- standardized labeling of samples with barcodes
System requirements
- at least 1024 Mb of RAM
- Mozilla Firefox 3.0 (compatibility for other browsers has not yet been tested)
- Microsoft Excel 2003 or higher
- Zebra TLP 2824 barcode printer
Contact:
Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology
Microbial Genomics Group
Celsiusstrasse 1
28359 Bremen
For any question please send a message to: whankeln(at)mpi-bremen.de