text: MGI evolved from a project funded by the National Center for Human Genome Research in 1989 to combine the databases of several Jackson Laboratory scientists and create a tool for visualizing data on the mouse genome. The result of that project, led by Joseph H. Nadeau, Larry E. Mobraaten, and Janan T. Eppig, was called the "Encyclopedia of the Mouse Genome" and distributed via floppy disk semi-annually to around 300 scientists around the world. In 1992, that group joined with the team responsible for developing the "Genomic Database for Mouse", led by Muriel T. Davisson and Thomas H. Roderick, to start the "Mouse Genome Informatics" project. That project resulted in the first online release of the "Mouse Genome Database" in 1994.