Pathways explain how the cells in our bodies work. Like a wiring diagram, pathways show the flow of interactions and reactions among molecules that perform all the functions of life. There are basic metabolic pathways, e.g. the metabolism of sugars, signaling pathways, like the development of the heart, and there are also pathways for diseases and even rare diseases.
Researchers around the world continue to discover new pathways all the time. In fact, thousands of new pathway diagrams are published in the scientific literature each year! Unfortunately, they are often provided solely as static images that cannot easily be searched or used in follow-up research.
The goal of the WikiPathways project is to collect pathway information in a format that can be used by researchers, patients and students. Additionally, all collected content is free and open access. WikiPathways approach is similar to Wikipedia: provide easy-to-use tools to allow any individual to contribute content. WikiPathways Academy will walk you through the process of becoming a pathway author. We start with basic terminology and rapidly progress to using the authoring tools. In no time at all, you will be able to take the pathway information trapped in static images and unleash it upon the world as living pathway models!
Any more questions? The WikiPathways Help section will help you in specific problems you may have as pathway creator or for programmatic access to WikiPathways content. For any other issue contact the WikiPathways developers. »
