The BioExtract Server is a web-based system for querying biomolecular sequence data, executing analytic tools on the resulting extracts, and constructing workflows composed of such queries and tools.

It offers a central distribution point for uniformly formatted data from a variety of resources including EMBL, SwissProt, and PlantGDB.

It also gives researchers access to a variety of analytic tools, including BLAST

BLAST

In bioinformatics, Basic Local Alignment Search Tool, or BLAST, is an algorithm for comparing primary biological sequence information, such as the amino-acid sequences of different proteins or the nucleotides of DNA sequences...

, Clustal

Clustal

Clustal is a widely used multiple sequence alignment computer program. The latest version is 2.1. There are two main variations:*ClustalW: command line interface*ClustalX: This version has a graphical user interface...

, and T-Coffee

T-Coffee

T-Coffee is a multiple sequence alignment software using a progressive approach. It generates a library of pairwise alignments to guide the multiple sequence alignment...

, and the BioMOBY

BioMOBY

BioMOBY is a registry of web services used in bioinformatics. It allows interoperability between biological data hosts and analytical services by annotating services with terms taken from standard ontologies.- The BioMOBY project :...

 and EBI Soaplab Web services.

Researchers create workflows implicitly by working with the system. Tasks such as saving a data extract, executing an analytic tool, and querying a data source are automatically saved each time they are performed during a session. At any time, a workflow can be created by saving these recorded tasks, and once saved, the workflow can be edited.

The BioExtract Server was created in The Brendel Group at Iowa State University

Iowa State University

Iowa State University of Science and Technology, more commonly known as Iowa State University , is a public land-grant and space-grant research university located in Ames, Iowa, United States. Iowa State has produced astronauts, scientists, and Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, along with a host of...

 in collaboration with Visual Metrics Corporation funded by NSF grant 0090732. Continuing development by the Lushbough Bioinformatics Group at The University of South Dakota

University of South Dakota

The University of South Dakota ', the state’s oldest university, was founded in 1862 and classes began in 1882. Located in Vermillion, South Dakota, United States, USD is home to South Dakota's only medical school and law school. USD is governed by the South Dakota Board of Regents, and its current...

is supported by NSF grant 0321600.