MetaBase is a user-contributed database

Database

A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...

 of biological database

Biological database

Biological databases are libraries of life sciences information, collected from scientific experiments, published literature, high-throughput experiment technology, and computational analyses. They contain information from research areas including genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, microarray...

s, listing all the biological

Biology

Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...

 databases currently available on the internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

. The initial release of MetaBase was derived entirely from the content of the Nucleic Acids Research

Nucleic Acids Research

Nucleic Acids Research is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Oxford University Press. It covers research on nucleic acids, such as DNA and RNA, and related work. Some of its content is available under an open access license. According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal's 2010...

 (NAR) 2007 Database Issue. MetaBase is a wiki

Wiki

A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...

, using MediaWiki

MediaWiki

MediaWiki is a popular free web-based wiki software application. Developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, it is used to run all of its projects, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Wikinews. Numerous other wikis around the world also use it to power their websites...

 software as well as the Semantic MediaWiki

Semantic MediaWiki

Semantic MediaWiki is an extension to MediaWiki that allows for annotating semantic data within wiki pages, thus turning a wiki that incorporates the extension into a semantic wiki...

 extension.

MetaBase was developed as part of the BioWiki initiative, and was entered into the first International Openfree Bioinformation Contents Competition organised by BiO.CC, the top-level biological information web site operated by Genome Research Foundation

Genome Research Foundation

Genome Research Foundation also known as Genome Foundation is a non-profit research foundation and institute in Korea under the approval of the ministry of Education, Science, and Technology of Korea. It is a public research foundation with over 30 researchers and staff in 2011.GRF was established...

.

Currently MetaBase contains details about nearly 1000 biological databases and over 800 'web services' derived from NAR, as well as more than 50 'user-contributed' databases.