[Zope] Zope a good solution for this?

[John P. Corradi]

Hi All,

This is a general question because I don't have Zope up and running now.
We have a large (Sybase) database of gene expression information which
includes an anatomical dictionary.  The anatomical dictionary is
hierarchical - i.e. organized by embryonic stage, anatomical structures,
substructures, cell types.  Currently there is a (Python) script that
periodically generate HTML files from the database which list all of the
dictionary terms in a space-delimited text format.  This format is not only
clumsy (these are long lists), but it's also not interactive.  Ideally,
we'd like to display the data as a hierarchical tree, allowing expansion
and collapse of each node (e.g. click on "brain" node and get all the
substructures of the brain, click on a brain substructure and get the cell
types found in that substructure).  Also, we might like to have users be
able to make queries directly from the anatomical dictionary (e.g. what
genes are expressed in this cell type in the cerebellum?)

From the Zope docs that I've read, it seems like Zope is well suited for
this.  We also have some very good Python programmers here (and I've done a
bit).  However, before I go full bore in trying to convince my boss, I'd
like to hear from the Zopistas:

Does this problem scream Zope!?

I know you can use SQL with the tree tag, but are there examples that I
could look at?  (recent posts to the list about this haven't gotten a lot
of responses)

What is the status of the Sybase DA?

Thanks in advance.

John