eVoke™ Expression Ontology Toolkit links experimental data with standardized terms that provide insight into phenotype in a way easily understood by researchers in all disciplines.

eVoke's ontologies are rapidly being adopted as a standard for describing gene expression state by key functional genome resources around the world. The only peer-reviewed, published human expression ontologies broadly available, eVoke's ontologies (eVoc) are presently incorporated into Ensembl, adopted by Genome Knowledgebase & officially acknowlegded as part of the standard adopted within the Minimum Information About Microarray Experiments (MIAME) guidelines for the annotation of the sample source of target cDNAs used in microarray experiments. [PDF - eVoke includes MIAME-standard compliant ontology]

The eVoke expression ontology toolkit incorporates the eVOC ontologies and presents these through a simple, intuitive interface for the effective querying of terms relating to anatomy, pathology, cell type and developmental stage. Frequent updates of clone libraries, ESTs and genes related to the eVOC ontology terms give users access to the latest data for their expression experiments. eVoke allows one to query gene expression in the same way that one queries gene function with GO, the controlled vocabulary provided by the Gene Ontology Consortium.

Simple eVoke's power lies in its simplicity. The clear, untangled hierarchies provided in eVoke are easy for users of all types - both human and computer - to understand. Ontologies in eVoke have a single relationship between their members, unlike other vocabularies currently available for cataloging clinical information, making it much more suitable for querying gene expression data. Easily Integrated eVoke is designed to ensure intuitive and rapid integration into existing bioinformatics systems. eVoke's untangled ontology structure, coupled with relational database storage and a well-documented API, ensure that incorporation of eVoke into automated pipelines is rapid and predictable. Ontologies can be readily extended, or new ontologies added, to accommodate additional gene expression concepts or to capture information about other organisms for cross-species comparison. Research data mapped to eVoke's ontologies extends just as readily and new information - public or proprietary - can be added and linked, either directly or transitively. Hyperlinks to external reference material can be created within the eVoke system.

Version 1.1.0 Advanced Query Builder

Intuitive graphical interface and functional design allows eVoke users to perform queries based on location, state and timing of expression in Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs), SAGE tags or cDNA libraries.

Querying using terms from any combination of the ontologies, both libraries and transcripts can be selected from the database based on their expression profile. Expression state-specific gene isoforms are determined swiftly and accurately by providing a list of EST accessions and analyzing the distribution of terms attached to each EST.

Electric Genetics offers a wide range of supplementary services to ensure that eVoke provides the greatest value for each research organization. In addition to modifying the data contained within eVoke for client-specific needs, Electric Genetics can also develop new ontology systems for other organisms, integrate eVoke with in-house systems or external data sources and customize the graphical user interface for use by researchers or customers.