Go to the abstract in the NAR 2003 Database Issue.
 |
 |
|||||||
|
||||||||
Université Montpellier II, CNRS, Montpellier, FRANCE
Contact lefranc@ligm.igh.cnrs.fr
IMGT, the international ImMunoGeneTics database®, created in 1989 by Marie-Paule Lefranc (Université Montpellier II, CNRS, Montpellier, France), is a high quality integrated information system specializing in Immunoglobulins (IG), T cell receptors (TR) and Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) of human and other vertebrates. IMGT provides a common access to expertly annotated nucleotide and protein sequences, structural data and genetic information for the molecules of the immune system. IMGT includes: (1) four databases: IMGT/LIGM-DB, a comprehensive database of more than 60 500 IG and TR sequences from human and from 104 other vertebrate species (September 2002), IMGT/3Dstructure-DB, IMGT/PRIMER-DB (LIGM, Montpellier), IMGT/HLA-DB (CR, ANRI, UK), (2) Web resources: 8000 HTML pages ('IMGT Marie-Paule page') which comprise locus representations, gene tables, allele alignments, 2D graphical representations (or Colliers de Perles), 3D representations (IMGT Repertoire), IMGT-ONTOLOGY rules (IMGT Scientific chart), educational pages (IMGT Education), numerous hyperlinks to external Web servers (IMGT Bloc-notes), a referential index (IMGT Index), (3) interactive tools: IMGT/V-QUEST, IMGT/JunctionAnalysis, IMGT/PhyloGene. Since July 1995, IMGT has been available on the web at http://imgt.cines.fr. IMGT has important implications in medical research (autoimmune diseases, AIDS, leukaemias, lymphomas, myelomas), veterinary research, analysis of the genome diversity and evolution of the adaptive immune system, biotechnology related to antibody engineering and therapeutic approaches (grafts, immunotherapy).
The IMGT/3Dstructure-DB database provides IG and TR gene and allele identification and Colliers de Perles of IG, TR and MHC with known 3D structures. 'IMGT/GeneView', 'IMGT/LocusView' and 'IMGT/GeneSearch' provide a convivial interface for the query and results from the IMGT genome databases. Since January 2000, the IMGT WWW server at Montpellier was accessed by more than 120 000 sites. IMGT has an exceptional response with more than 120 000 requests a month.
IMGT is funded by the European Union's 5th PCRDT programme QLG2-2000-01287, the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), the Ministère de l'Education Nationale and the Ministère de la Recherche.
1. Lefranc M.-P. and Lefranc G., The Immunoglobulin FactsBook, Academic Press, Harcourt, 458 pages, 2001, ISBN:012441351X
2. Lefranc M.-P. and Lefranc G., The T cell receptor FactsBook, Academic Press, Harcourt, 398 pages, 2001, ISBN:0124413528
3. Ruiz M. and Lefranc M.-P., IMGT gene identification and Colliers de Perles of human immunoglobulins with known 3D structures. Immunogenetics, 2002, 53, 857-883. PMID:11862387
4. Lefranc M.-P. IMGT, the international ImMunoGeneTics database®: a high-quality information system for comparative immunogenetics and immunology. Dev. Comp. Immunol., 2002, 26, 697-705.
Category Protein Databases
Go to the abstract in the NAR 2003 Database Issue.