GENCODE

The GENCODE consortium creates foundational reference annotation for the human and mouse genomes, for which all features are identified and classified with high accuracy based on biological evidence. Such data is then made publicly available to the community with the aim to benefit both biomedical research and genome interpretation.  

GENCODE prioritizes human disease genes while respecting the role of mouse as the major mammalian model organism. To effectively annotate genomes, GENCODE partners have developed a suite of tools that dig deep across four fundamental pillars, namely: i) a comprehensive gene annotation pipeline leveraging manual and computational annotation; ii) a set of computational methods to evaluate and enhance gene annotation; iii) experimental pipelines targeted to expressed sequences less detectable in standard protocols; and iv) a machine learning capacity to improve all facets of the project.  

Additionally, new outreach mechanisms related to training and communication will be made available to the community with the long-term aim of positioning GENCODE as the standard annotation set for research and clinical genomics applications.