Databases in Human and Medical Genetics

This chapter provides an introduction to the major, freely available, Internet-accessible databases in human and medical genetics used by healthcare providers in the diagnosis, management, and genetic counseling of persons with inherited disorders and their families, as well as by researchers for gene discovery, recording allelic variants, and cataloging genotype-phenotype relationships. Databases discussed include: GeneTests (view: www.genetests.org); Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (view: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Omim); locus specific databases (LSDBs) identified at the Human Genome Variation Society (HGVS) web site (http://www.HGVS.org/dblist.html); DatabasE of Chromosome Imbalance and Phenotype in Humans using Ensembl Resources (view: http://decipher.sanger.ac.uk); Entrez Gene (view: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene); dbGap: Database of Genotype and Phenotype (view: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/dbgap); and the Human Gene Mutation Database HGMD ® (view: http://www.hgmd.org).