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7 CONCLUSIONS
The main subject of this paper was to provide a
methodology for integrating emerging scientific do-
mains and applications in a virtual laboratory envi-
ronment. Integration of new domains and applications
in a complex virtual laboratory environment requires
a common understanding of scientific experiments,
availability of both well-defined data models for mod-
elling experiment-related information and functional-
ity / mechanisms for the management of this informa-
tion. Therefore, in this paper:
1. an experiment model is introduced that is capable
of uniformly representing different aspects of het-
erogeneous scientific experiments;
2. several data models are provided for representing
the experiment-related information, which are uni-
form and reusable (to model information related to
heterogeneous experiments), and open, flexible and
extendible (to improve the developed models in the
future when needed and to model new types of ex-
perimental information);
3. mechanisms for managing the experiment-related
information in a VL are mentioned, that are generic
and reusable (to support uniform management of
heterogenous experimental information); and
4. a methodology is defined for integration of new do-
mains and applications in VL based on the results
obtained and experience gained during the VLAM-
G project presented here, which provides a step-
by-step guidance to domain experts, tool develop-
ers and administrators during the process of adding
new applications / resources to the VL.
The methodology defined in this paper is generic
and can be implemented by different support envi-
ronments in different ways. During the course of the
VLAM-G project, the methodology has been applied
to the two initial application cases (the DNA microar-
ray and MACS applications), and the received feed-
back was used to further improve/refine the method-
ology. Currently, two databases for these applications
together with experiment procedures and some anal-
ysis tools are provided to VLAM-G users. Further-
more, development of a new application for gene se-
quence analysis studies using this methodology is on-
going.
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