Nucleic Acids Research Advance Access originally published online on October 5, 2008
Nucleic Acids Research 2009 37(Database issue):D1013-D1017; doi:10.1093/nar/gkn662
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Nucleic Acids Research, 2009, Vol. 37, Database issue D1013-D1017
© 2008 The Author(s)
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This article appears in the following Nucleic Acids Research issue: Database issue [View the issue table of contents]
Articles |
The IMGT/HLA database
1Anthony Nolan Research Institute, Royal Free Hospital, Pond Street, Hampstead, London NW3 2QG, UK, 2External Services, EMBL Outstation—European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SD, UK, 3Department of Structural Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Sherman Fairchild Research Building, Stanford, CA 94305-5136, USA and 4UCL Cancer Institute, University College London, Royal Free Campus, Pond Street, Hampstead, London, NW3 2QG, UK
*To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +44 20 7284 8321; Fax: +44 20 7284 8331; Email: steven.marsh{at}ucl.ac.uk
Received September 5, 2008. Accepted September 19, 2008.
It is 10 years since the IMGT/HLA database was released, providing the HLA community with a searchable repository of highly curated HLA sequences. The HLA complex is located within the 6p21.3 region of human chromosome 6 and contains more than 220 genes of diverse function. Many of the genes encode proteins of the immune system and are highly polymorphic. The naming of these HLA genes and alleles, and their quality control is the responsibility of the WHO Nomenclature Committee for Factors of the HLA System. Through the work of the HLA Informatics Group and in collaboration with the European Bioinformatics Institute, we are able to provide public access to this data through the website http://www.ebi.ac.uk/imgt/hla/. The first release contained 964 sequences, the most recent release 3300 sequences, with around 450 new sequences been added each year. The tools provided on the website have been updated to allow more complex alignments, which include genomic sequence data, as well as the development of tools for probe and primer design and the inclusion of data from the HLA Dictionary. Regular updates to the website ensure that new and confirmatory sequences are dispersed to the HLA community, and the wider research and clinical communities.