A gateway to the future of neuroinformatics

271 *Address to which all correspondence and reprint requests should be sent. E-mail: dan@aplysia.med.cornell.edu An important event for neuroinformatics and for neuroscience is the recent announcement of the launch by the Society for Neuroscience of a Neuroscience Database Gateway (NDG, accessible at http://www. sfn.org/ndg). In order to assess the significance of this event for the readers of Neuroinformatics, it may be useful to indicate briefly the background leading up to the NDG, and the challenges it presents for the future.