GenoScript is an integrated environment for transcriptome analysis, designed for collecting, storing, querying and analyzing DNA chips data, from either micro-arrays (fluorescence on glass slides) or macro-arrays (radioactivity on nylon membranes), generated in the framework of global gene expression profiling of micro-organisms (bacteria and lower eukaryotes).

The data model of GenoScript was elaborated in the context of the international definition of models and ontologies for DNA-array experiments by the MGED group (http://www.mged.org/). However the conceptual schema defined for GenoScript includes more information than present in these minimal standards, and it implements original ways for organizing and linking together complex data (experiment design, array description, experimental and statistical procedures, etc.). Moreover, raw data and statistically treated data can be recorded, in such a way that parallel analysis on the same dataset may coexist in the database.

A user interface was designed to access the database on the World Wide Web. A submission module was developed to facilitate the data entry process (from the initial culture to raw expression values). This module allows the user to enter data by following the logical operation of the experimental process, through tightly controlled procedures. Moreover, the interface can be easily customized according to specific needs generated by a given project. The main typical queries on transcriptome experiments are available (e.g. searching for significantly regulated genes in a given experiment), and more elaborate data mining capabilities (e.g. functional classification, metabolic pathways, and a complex queries form) are being developed.