GeneCards  GeneCards is a database of human genes that provides genomic, proteomic, transcriptomic, genetic and functional information on all known and predicted human genes. It is being developed and maintained by the Crown Human Genome Center at the Weizmann Institute of Science. The database aims at providing a quick overview of the current available biomedical information about the searched gene, including the human genes, the encoded proteins, and the relevant diseases. The GeneCards database provides access to free Web resources about more than 7000 all known human genes that integrated from >90 data resources, such as HGNC, Ensembl, and NCBI. The core gene list is based on approved gene symbols published by the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC). The information is carefully gathered and selected from these databases by its engine. If the search does not return any results, this database will give several suggestions to help users accomplish their search depending on the type of query and offer direct links to other databases’ search engine. Over time, the GeneCards database has developed a suite of tools (GeneDecks, GeneLoc, GeneALaCart) that has more specialised capability. Since 1998, the GeneCards database has been widely used by bioinformatics, genomics and medical communities for more than 15 years. Since the 1980s, sequence information has become increasingly abundant; subsequently many laboratories realized this and began to store such information in central repositories-the primary database. However, the information provided by the primary sequence databases (lower level databases) focus on different aspects. To gather these scattered data, the Weizmann Institute of Science's Crown Human Genome Centre developed a database called ‘GeneCards’ in 1997. This database mainly dealt with human genome information, human genes, the encoded proteins’ functions, and related diseases, though it has expanded since that time. Initially, the GeneCards database had two main features: delivery of integrated biomedical information for a gene in ‘card’ format, and a text-based search engine. Since 1998, the database has integrated more data resources and data types, such as protein expression and gene network information. It has also improved the speed and sophistication of the search engine, and expanded from a gene-centric dogma to contain gene-set analyses. Version 3 of the database gathers information from more than 90 database resources based on a consolidated gene list. It has also added a suite of GeneCards tools which focus on more specific purposes.