April 1, 2008 (Vol. 28, No. 7)
URL:
http://www.gdb.org
Rating:
Strong Points: Mass of info with easy access
Weak Points: Broken links
Summary:
The GDB Human Genome Database is, as its name says, a database of the human genome, an honor that is shared by only a few thousand or so other sites. What distinguishes this one, at least by its title, is that it is the “Official World-Wide Database for the Annotation of the Human Genome.” I wasn’t aware that such official databases exist, but this one apparently does. Flippancy aside, an annotated human genome is important for everyone, and having a single site responsible for this is a good idea. The opening page contains a powerful search engine that allows searches by many criteria including name, ID, and citation. Advanced search options are also available. If one clicks on the section entitled “HUGO Chromosomes,” one will discover a section of the site with many broken links, at least if one clicks on a chromosome number followed by clicking on Gene/Transcript Maps. That’s a relatively small complaint, though the problem extended across every chromosome I checked. Overall, the beauty of the GDB database is that it makes access to human gene info easy.
