ToolFinder - discover and reuse bioinformatics software

Australian researchers have access to thousands of bioinformatics software packages. These are essential parts of their analysis pipelines, and having access to the right software is key to keeping research moving. The challenge is that this software is also widely distributed across a diverse system of national and institutional computing facilities and cloud platforms in Australia. When searching for the software packages they need, life scientists face a complex ecosystem that can be a complicated and confusing impediment to their work. 

In community consultations the Australian BioCommons heard the need to enhance the discoverability of bioinformatics software: our response is ToolFinder.

ToolFinder is a searchable and interactive table of software versions installed across Australian computational infrastructures. Information about what software is available at different locations is paired with useful metadata from the international software registry bio.tools. ToolFinder can therefore also provide information such as software homepage links, registered publications, available containers, licenses and more. 

The compute systems currently incorporated in ToolFinder include the Gadi high performance computer at the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI), the Zeus and Magnus machines at Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre, the shared software system for QRISCloud and the cloud service, Galaxy Australia. It can be extended to include virtually any computational system in the country, and more systems are being listed over time.

ToolFinder was designed to aid navigation of the complex and distributed Australian bioinformatics ecosystem. It continues to be actively developed to ensure that it is practical and easy-to-use for Australian life science researchers. 

Check out ToolFinder now by searching or browsing by software name or purpose.