FuGE: Functional Genomics Experiment Object Model

This is an interim report on the Functional Genomics Experiment (FuGE) Object Model. FuGE is a framework for creating data standards for high-throughput biological experiments, developed by a consortium of researchers from academia and industry. FuGE supports rich annotation of samples, protocols, instruments, and software, as well as providing extension points for technology specific details. It has been adopted by microarray and proteomics standards bodies as a basis for forthcoming standards. It is hoped that standards developers for other omics techniques will join this collaborative effort; widespread adoption will allow uniform annotation of common parts of functional genomics workflows, reduce standard development and learning times through the sharing of consistent practice, and ease the construction of software for accessing and integrating functional genomics data. This paper is part of the special issue of OMICS on data standards.