The Internet is rapidly becoming integral to bioscience research. The laboratory of Justin Fallon at Brown University utilizes the Internet extensively for both research and communication. A discussion with Fallon and lab members identifies specific Web resources and reveals the different ways the lab uses the Internet.

The Fallon lab studies the molecular mechanisms of synapse formation and plasticity. The research focuses on the role of agrin, an extracellular matrix protein, at neuromuscular junctions and in the central nervous system. Specific projects explore agrin signal transduction pathways at the post-synaptic membrane and the function of agrin isoforms and their receptors. The laboratory uses a combination of cell and molecular biology techniques. Research organisms include mice, rats, chick embryos, and the Torpedo electric fish. For cellular studies, the lab cultures hippocampal neurons, myotubes from chick embryos, C2C12 muscle cells, and transfected COS cells.

Laboratory members include four postdocs, three graduate students, and two research assistants. The lab is fortunate to have one computer for almost every person in the lab, which owns a mix of Macintoshes and PCs. As with all research scientists, time is at a premium, so any resource or tool that facilitates research is valued. The extra time will be spent performing more experiments.

The Fallon lab uses a variety of Web resources to help with its research. Fallon states firmly that "the most useful Web site to come along is PubMed," developed at the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Many times he and other lab members will be discussing a research project and someone will ask, "What is known about that?" Quickly checking PubMed reveals within minutes the scope of knowledge in that topic. Fallon particularly likes the "real time" quality of PubMed and its related-articles feature. He also appreciates the direct links to online journals from PubMed references.

Members of the laboratory regularly make use of several online full-text journals, including Science, Neuron, Cell, and the Journal of Neuroscience. Fallon has paid subscriptions to these journals, which can be accessed online directly from the lab. The lab also uses free limited-time offers for access to other full-text journals, in particular the Journal of Cell Biology (free until March 1998) and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (free until January 1998). Fallon finds it especially valuable to use the online full-text journals as archives so he need not store piles of paper journals.

Like many labs, the Fallon lab uses NCBI's BLAST programs to search for sequence homologies. The immediacy of the results generated by this type of resource has affected research labs worldwide. For example, one day postdoctoral fellows Katherine Deyst and Mark Bowe entered into BLAST some sequence from a purified protein. Fallon describes the incident as "putting in the data, getting the results from a BLAST search, and within minutes knowing that you are in a different field."

Internet search engines are used to obtain additional information from Web resources such as laboratory home pages and research descriptions. Bowe says he uses search engines "to get at information that is directly germane to my research." For example, if he wants to find information on a particular protein, he uses search engines to tell "whoever has the name of that protein on their Web site, or if they have grants and their whole lab is based on that protein." In general, the Fallon lab prefers the AltaVista search engine. However, Deyst highly recommends the Metacrawler search service. Metacrawler does not maintain its own database, but instead queries the major search engines and summarizes their results.

The lab visits the Web sites of bio-suppliers and software companies to access technical information and gain e-mail contacts. Recommended sites include Pharmacia, Upstate Biotechnology, Bio-Rad, and Molecular Probes. Fallon lab graduate student Laura Megeath finds that she often has "fragmentary information about random companies or reagents"and that the Internet provides "a way to find them and get in touch with them."

In addition, the lab uses the Internet to search for meeting and conference information. The Gordon Research Conferences and the Keystone Symposia Conferences Web sites, which list conferences through 1998, are particularly useful. Information includes chairpersons, scheduled presentations, online registration forms, and location details. The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) also provides a helpful list of the meetings of member societies through 1988, although the amount of online information varies depending on the host organization. For instance, FASEB led the Fallon lab to access the Web site of the Society for Neuroscience's 1997 Annual Meeting, a site that featured a searchable index of abstracts. But according to Bowe the site was so overloaded that it was often impossible to get information.

Members of the Fallon lab use BiologyWeek to look for seminars and symposia in the Boston area. Biology Week is a weekly publication based at the Whitehead Institute and is also available in e-mail and print versions. In addition, Fallon lab members scan the Web site of the Marine Biological Laboratory (Woods Hole, Massachusetts) for neuroscience course and conference information.

Other Web sites recommended by the Fallon lab include a wide range of neuroscience resources. Fallon recommends the Neuromuscular Disease Center at Washington University as "one of the best sites organized around a theme." The Duke Neurobiology Facilities home page provides general information and contacts. Graduate student Mike Rafii enjoys visiting Purkinje Park, the home page of the Bower lab at Caltech. This site provides access to the GENESIS simulator used to model neural systems. He also uses the Rat Atlas Image Database, a 3-D map presented by the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging. The Fallon lab has accessed the Database of Gene Knockouts at the Weizmann Institute, which they think would be a good resource if the material were kept current.

E-mail is a major communication tool in the Fallon lab. Of course, e-mail an easy way to keep in touch with other institutions' colleagues, especially those in different time zones. But Fallon was surprised to find how extremely useful e-mail is within the lab. E-mail is utilized not only for lab announcements, but also to forward communications from other researchers to the appropriate lab members. This allows lab members to be immediately up-to-date and to organize information in their own ways. Fallon says "that kind of simultaneity is extraordinarily useful and very, very efficient." E-mail can also provide an easy way to get in touch with a busy PI. Often Fallon will see lab members working furiously at the bench and then get their message: "Can we talk?"

The Fallon lab often uses e-mail attachments to send documents and data. An example of such efficiency took place one Saturday while Fallon was writing at home. Student Laura Megeath performed an experiment in the lab, developed the results in the phospho-imager, and sent the image to Fallon. They were immediately on the phone looking at the same image and planning subsequent experiments. Fallon has found that e-mail makes "a huge difference working at home which is 60 miles away" from the lab. He says "I would have to move . . . if I didn't have e-mail and access to the Internet."

What specific Web resources would the Fallon lab like to see in the future? A mouse gene knockout site that is actively maintained and contains more prospective data would be extremely useful. Direct links from online journal articles to specific protocols on lab home pages would allow researchers to see in detail how experiments were done. In addition, online archiving of abstracts from scientific meetings would provide a valuable reference resource.

The Fallon lab is just one of many research laboratories using online resources. Fast, direct, and inexpensive access to relevant information has made the Internet a powerful research tool.

Neurosciences on the Internet - a comprehensive searchable index of neuroscience resources and is profiled in HMS Beagle's Site Review.

The World-Wide Web Virtual Library: Neuroscience (Biosciences) - an alphabetical list of neuroscience resources, including many academic departments.