The Forsburg Lab studies the regulation of DNA replication using the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe as a model system. Many of the regulatory genes and gene products for DNA replication in S. pombe have already been identified. The Forsburg Lab focuses on controlling S phase early in the cell cycle. Its research concentrates on the role of the MCM proteins, a conserved protein family found in organisms such as rice, Drosophila, and humans. Technical approaches used by the Forsburg Lab range from classical yeast genetics and physiology to molecular biology, cell biology, and biochemistry.

To locate relevant Web resources, the Forsburg Lab uses Cell & Molecular Biology Online and Pedro's Biomolecular Research Tools. The lab also employs search engines for scouring the net for particular information. Occasionally, lab members view biosuppliers' home pages, "although usually only with a particular product in mind, not for browsing," says Forsburg.

Notable S. pombe Web sites recommended by the Forsburg Lab include Frans Hochstenbach's WWW information on Schizosaccharomyces pombe. This site provides a history of S. pombe as a model system, along with an extensive fission yeast handbook of detailed protocols. The Sanger Centre's S. pombe sequencing project site contains the useful S. pombe BLAST Server. Researchers anticipate that the entire S. pombe genome will be sequenced by the year 2000. Another good S. pombe Web resource is Pombe Wisdom, maintained by Tom Chappell at UC London, which provides a list of cloned genes and weekly updates of pombe papers. Unfortunately, these pages are often inaccessible, and Forsburg hopes that they will be fully running again soon. In addition, the First International Fission Yeast Meeting for 1999 was recently announced with its own Web site.

In addition, individuals in the Forsburg Lab have favorite Web sites that they survey periodically. Forsburg manages the lab computers, so she monitors Macintosh user sites such as MacFixIt and Apple Computer. Forsburg also regularly participates in the Bionet newsgroups bionet.molbio.yeast and bionet.women-in-biology. Postdocs Hilary Snaith and Sally Pasion use the BBC News and Los Angeles Times sites to keep track of current news and events. Technician Jeff Hodson is a surfer who uses La Jolla Surfing to view local weather conditions.

Over the past few years, some intrepid research laboratories have developed home pages to showcase their research and to serve as informational resources to other labs. The Forsburg Lab has an outstanding home page that features an introduction to S. pombe biology, current research projects, S. pombe technical information, selected protocols, and an extensive collection of links. The Web site also includes a version of the Forsburg Lab game, in which a rubber snake, Felix, is hidden in the lab and on the lab Web site. Members of the Forsburg Lab use the home page primarily for the links collection, but also sometimes to check protocols and other technical information.

The Forsburg Lab home page is entirely the work of Susan Forsburg, who says, "I find writing HTML to be a relaxing challenge, like doing jigsaws, so I write all the code by hand." Forsburg enjoys experimenting with new Web technologies such as JavaScript and cookies, but prefers to keep the lab site friendly to all browsers. To develop and maintain the site, she uses a shareware HTML text editor, Saint-Edit, and graphics packages Adobe Photoshop and Deneba Software's Canvas. Shareware utilities Gifbuilder and Clip2gif are utilized to convert graphics to GIF files.

According to Forsburg, the lab site began as a project to assist other researchers in the S. pombe field. She describes how "fission yeast has only recently developed much of an American following, and thus most American labs that use pombe as their primary system are relatively young. Many of us trained abroad, because S. pombe has been a very popular experimental organism in Europe and Japan for some time." When Forsburg first started her lab, she found that she was fielding a multitude of phone calls from other researchers with questions about S. pombe methods and biology. In addition, for several years, she had been developing a database of S. pombe vectors and wanted to make this information available to other researchers. Forsburg developed the Forsburg Lab home page to present this information over the Web, and the site went online in November 1995. Currently, the Forsburg Lab site receives up to 200 hits a day from all over the world, including Europe, Australia, Asia, and Africa.

Researchers in the pombe field share much information via the Web. Forsburg says that "the pombe community is very dispersed, so Web pages are a useful way to keep in touch." Many pombe labs maintain home pages, and a complete list of S. pombe researchers on the Web is compiled at the Forsburg Lab site. Members of the Forsburg Lab visit other researchers' Web sites "periodically to see what everyone is up to." For the Forsburg Lab, their lab home page has increased the lab's profile in the pombe field. Forsburg says that the lab site "is a useful way to tell the world who we are. Being a small, young lab, many people wouldn't otherwise know us, so I recently expanded the research section and our added lab publications and support. It has already been useful in recruiting!"

What resources would the Forsburg Lab like to see on the Web? "More online journals top everyone's list," according to Forsburg, along with more open descriptions of individual work and more data online, including videos. The lab is looking forward to the completion of the S. pombe genome project with the sequence information available over the Web. In the future, lab members can imagine the Web being used for videoconferencing, especially between reviewers and editors.

The Forsburg Lab uses the Internet for informational purposes and as a research tool. In addition, Susan Forsburg has developed a significant online resource for the whole S. pombe community, including both researchers and educators. Forsburg says "I have an old-fashioned notion that one should be part of and assist a broader community." Hopefully, the Forsburg Lab home page will inspire other laboratories to present their research on the Web.

NIH Resources for the Schizosaccharomyces pombe Community - includes the YEAST mailing list, which is not restricted to pombe researchers.

WWW Virtual Library: Yeasts - lists relevant links for budding yeast (S. cerevisiae;), fission yeast (S. pombe) and Candida albicans, along with general information about yeast.

Saccharomyces Genome Database - Stanford's resource is reviewed in HMS Beagle.

Webmonkey: A How-to Guide for Web Junkies - HotWired's site of feature articles, tutorials, and up-to-date information on HTML, Web design, and Web utilities for both experts and novices.

The Web Developer's Journal - provides a Web Tools Download Page to obtain shareware and beta versions of software, including HTML editors and authoring utilities. The site includes software reviews, book reviews, and discussion groups.

NCSA Beginner's Guide to HTML - provides an introduction to HTML. Available in HTML or PDF formats.