Ensembl

A genome browser and bioinformatics resource platform that provides free access to annotated genome assemblies for hundreds of vertebrate species, enabling researchers in genomics, molecular biology, evolutionary biology, and biomedical sciences to explore genomic data with rich contextual annotations. Jointly managed by the European Bioinformatics Institute and the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the platform has been a cornerstone of the global genomics infrastructure since its launch in 1999, initially created to annotate the human genome sequence produced by the Human Genome Project and subsequently expanded to encompass comparative genomics across the tree of life. The genome browser interface displays annotated genomic features including genes, transcripts, proteins, regulatory elements, variations, comparative genomics alignments, and phenotype associations along chromosomal coordinates, with adjustable zoom levels from whole chromosomes down to individual nucleotides. Users can search by gene name, genomic locus, variant identifier, or phenotype term, and export sequences, annotation tracks, and tabular reports for downstream analysis. The variant effect predictor tool analyses the consequences of genetic variants on transcripts and proteins, widely used in clinical genomics and rare disease research. Comparative genomics resources include whole-genome alignments, synteny maps, gene trees, and orthologue and paralogue predictions that help researchers understand gene function across species through evolutionary relationships. The BioMart data mining tool enables batch retrieval of customised datasets combining genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic annotations.