Elisabeth Gasteiger

Elisabeth Gasteiger is a Swiss bioinformatician known for her work in developing and managing tools for protein analysis. ^{[1] [2]} Her efforts have been instrumental in advancing proteomics research, particularly through her contributions to the ExPASy (Expert Protein Analysis System), a bioinformatics resource platform. ^[3] She currently holds the position of Senior User Experience and Support Manager at the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB). ^[4]

Career

Gasteiger's work at the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB) has been instrumental in the development and enhancement of key bioinformatics resources, including the UniProt database, an integrated platform that combines protein sequence data from Swiss-Prot, TrEMBL, and PIR, as well as the ExPASy platform, which provides a suite of tools to support protein sequence analysis and related research. ^{[5] [6]}

She has played a pivotal role in the development and enhancement of the ExPASy (Expert Protein Analysis System) platform, coordinating software development within the Swiss-Prot group at SIB and overseeing the ExPASy server. ^[7]

One of her notable contributions is the development of ProtParam, a tool hosted on the ExPASy server that allows researchers to compute various physical and chemical parameters of a protein sequence, such as its molecular weight, theoretical pI, amino acid composition, and extinction coefficient. ^[8]

In her role as User Experience & Support Manager with the Swiss-Prot Group at SIB, she contributed to the deployment of the Cellosaurus database on the ExPASy platform in May 2015, significantly enhancing its development as a standalone resource for life sciences research. ^[9]

She has also contributed to other bioinformatics resources, including the creation of the ABCD database, a repository for chemically defined antibodies, which serves as a valuable resource for researchers in the field of immunology. ^[10] Additionally, she has been associated with the development of the Glycomics@ExPASy platform, which aims to bridge the gap in glycomics research by providing access to a variety of databases and tools dedicated to the study of glycans and glycoproteins. ^[11]

Her ongoing work has contributed to the success of UniProt as a leading resource for protein sequence classification, annotation, and functional analysis, supporting researchers worldwide in molecular biology, genomics, and proteomics. ^[12]

She has been instrumental in providing critical support to researchers by developing and managing bioinformatics tools that improve the accessibility and accuracy of protein sequence data. ^[13]

In 2024, she contributed to a research initiative in collaboration with Ottokar Stundner and other clinician scientists, which was awarded the Weiss Research Prize. This project, supported by the Weiss-Wissenschaftsstiftung and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), aims to improve the safety of anesthetic procedures by investigating the risks associated with crystal formation in anesthetic mixtures. ^{[14] [15]}

Selected publications

• Gasteiger, E., Hoogland, C., Gattiker, A., Duvaud, S., Wilkins, M. R., Appel, R. D., Bairoch, A. (2003). "ExPASy: SIB bioinformatics resource portal." Nucleic Acids Research, 31(13), 3787–3793. doi:10.1093/nar/gkg557.
• Gasteiger, E., Hoogland, C., Gattiker, A., Duvaud, S., Wilkins, M. R., Appel, R. D., Bairoch, A. (2005). "Protein identification and analysis tools on the ExPASy server." In: Walker, J. M. (ed.), The Proteomics Protocols Handbook, pp. 571–607. Humana Press. doi:10.1385/1-59259-890-0:571.
• Gasteiger, E., Jung, E., Bairoch, A. (2001). "The SWISS-PROT protein sequence database and its applications in proteomics." Bioinformatics, 17(2), 305–306. doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/17.2.305.
• Boeckmann, B., Bairoch, A., Apweiler, R., Blatter, M. C., Estreicher, A., Gasteiger, E., et al. (2003). "The SWISS-PROT protein knowledgebase and its applications to proteomics." Bioinformatics, 19(2), 1–10. doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/19.2.1.
• Gasteiger, E., UniProt Consortium. (2001). "UniProt: The universal protein knowledgebase." Nucleic Acids Research, 46(D1), D136–D139. doi:10.1093/nar/gkx1098.
• Gasteiger, E., UniProt Consortium. (2009). "The protein knowledgebase: UniProt and its applications." Bioinformatics, 25(11), 1626–1637. doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btp183.

References

1. Gasteiger, Elisabeth; Gattiker, Alexandre; Hoogland, Christine; Ivanyi, Ivan; Appel, Ron D.; Bairoch, Amos (2003-07-01). "ExPASy: The proteomics server for in-depth protein knowledge and analysis". Nucleic Acids Research. 31 (13): 3784–3788. doi:10.1093/nar/gkg563. ISSN   1362-4962. PMC   168970 . PMID   12824418.
2. "Elisabeth Gasteiger | People search | SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics". www.sib.swiss. Retrieved 2025-01-08.
3. Gasteiger, Elisabeth; Gattiker, Alexandre; Hoogland, Christine; Ivanyi, Ivan; Appel, Ron D.; Bairoch, Amos (2003-07-01). "ExPASy: The proteomics server for in-depth protein knowledge and analysis". Nucleic Acids Research. 31 (13): 3784–3788. doi:10.1093/nar/gkg563. ISSN   1362-4962. PMC   168970 . PMID   12824418.
4. "Elisabeth Gasteiger | People search | SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics". www.sib.swiss. Retrieved 2025-01-08.
5. Apweiler, Rolf; Bairoch, Amos; Wu, Cathy H.; Barker, Winona C.; Boeckmann, Brigitte; Ferro, Serenella; Gasteiger, Elisabeth; Huang, Hongzhan; Lopez, Rodrigo; Magrane, Michele; Martin, Maria J.; Natale, Darren A.; O'Donovan, Claire; Redaschi, Nicole; Yeh, Lai-Su L. (2004-01-01). "UniProt: the Universal Protein knowledgebase". Nucleic Acids Research. 32 (Database issue): D115–119. doi:10.1093/nar/gkh131. ISSN   1362-4962. PMC   308865 . PMID   14681372.
6. Durinx, Christine; McEntyre, Jo; Appel, Ron; Apweiler, Rolf; Barlow, Mary; Blomberg, Niklas; Cook, Chuck; Gasteiger, Elisabeth; Kim, Jee-Hyub; Lopez, Rodrigo; Redaschi, Nicole; Stockinger, Heinz; Teixeira, Daniel; Valencia, Alfonso (2016). "Identifying ELIXIR Core Data Resources". F1000Research. 5: ELIXIR–2422. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.9656.2 . ISSN   2046-1402. PMC   5070591 . PMID   27803796.
7. "Elisabeth Gasteiger coordinates software development in the SWISS-PROT group at the SIB and is in charge of the ExPASy server.” [inside PDF at link] O'Donovan, C. (2002-01-01). "High-quality protein knowledge resource: SWISS-PROT and TrEMBL". Briefings in Bioinformatics. 3 (3): 275–284. doi:10.1093/bib/3.3.275. ISSN  1467-5463.
8. "Expasy - ProtParam documentation". web.expasy.org. Retrieved 2025-01-08.
9. "Cellosaurus and Rhea join the portfolio of ELIXIR Core Data Resources | SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics". www.sib.swiss. 2021-01-04. Retrieved 2025-01-08.
10. Lima, Wanessa C.; Gasteiger, Elisabeth; Marcatili, Paolo; Duek, Paula; Bairoch, Amos; Cosson, Pierre (2020). "The ABCD database: a repository for chemically defined antibodies". Nucleic Acids Research. 48 (D1): D261 –D264. doi:10.1093/nar/gkz714. ISSN   0305-1048. PMC   6943046 . PMID   31410491.
11. Cooper, Catherine A.; Gasteiger, Elisabeth; Packer, Nicolle H. (2001). "GlycoMod – A software tool for determining glycosylation compositions from mass spectrometric data" . Proteomics. 1 (2): 340–349. doi:10.1002/1615-9861(200102)1:2<340::AID-PROT340>3.0.CO;2-B. ISSN   1615-9861. PMID   11680880.
12. Boeckmann, Brigitte; Bairoch, Amos; Apweiler, Rolf; Blatter, Marie-Claude; Estreicher, Anne; Gasteiger, Elisabeth; Martin, Maria J.; Michoud, Karine; O'Donovan, Claire; Phan, Isabelle; Pilbout, Sandrine; Schneider, Michel (2003-01-01). "The SWISS-PROT protein knowledgebase and its supplement TrEMBL in 2003". Nucleic Acids Research. 31 (1): 365–370. doi:10.1093/nar/gkg095. ISSN   1362-4962. PMC   165542 . PMID   12520024.
13. Gasteiger, Elisabeth; Hoogland, Christine; Gattiker, Alexandre; Duvaud, S'everine; Wilkins, Marc R.; Appel, Ron D.; Bairoch, Amos (2005), Walker, John M. (ed.), "Protein Identification and Analysis Tools on the ExPASy Server" , The Proteomics Protocols Handbook, Totowa, NJ: Humana Press, pp. 571–607, doi:10.1385/1-59259-890-0:571, ISBN   978-1-59259-890-8 , retrieved 2025-01-08
14. "Weiss-Forschungspreis: Sicherheit in klinischen Verfahren steigern - myPoint". i-med.ac.at (in German). Retrieved 2025-01-08.
15. "Weiss-Forschungspreis: Sicherheit in klinischen Verfahren steigern". Österreichischer Wissenschaftsfonds FWF (in German). Retrieved 2025-01-08.