title: IMGT, the international ImMunoGeneTics information system.
abstract: The international ImMunoGeneTics information system (IMGT) (http://imgt.cines.fr), created in 1989, by the Laboratoire d'ImmunoGenetique Moleculaire LIGM (Universite Montpellier II and CNRS) at Montpellier, France, is a high-quality integrated knowledge resource specializing in the immunoglobulins (IGs), T cell receptors (TRs), major histocompatibility complex (MHC) of human and other vertebrates, and related proteins of the immune systems (RPI) that belong to the immunoglobulin superfamily (IgSF) and to the MHC superfamily (MhcSF). IMGT includes several sequence databases (IMGT/LIGM-DB, IMGT/PRIMER-DB, IMGT/PROTEIN-DB and IMGT/MHC-DB), one genome database (IMGT/GENE-DB) and one three-dimensional (3D) structure database (IMGT/3Dstructure-DB), Web resources comprising 8000 HTML pages (IMGT Marie-Paule page), and interactive tools. IMGT data are expertly annotated according to the rules of the IMGT Scientific chart, based on the IMGT-ONTOLOGY concepts. IMGT tools are particularly useful for the analysis of the IG and TR repertoires in normal physiological and pathological situations. IMGT is used in medical research (autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases, AIDS, leukemias, lymphomas, myelomas), veterinary research, biotechnology related to antibody engineering (phage displays, combinatorial libraries, chimeric, humanized and human antibodies), diagnostics (clonalities, detection and follow up of residual diseases) and therapeutical approaches (graft, immunotherapy and vaccinology). IMGT is freely available at http://imgt.cines.fr.
authors.affiliation: IMGT, the international ImMunoGeneTics information system Université Montpellier II, Laboratoire d'ImmunoGénétique Moléculaire LIGM, UPR CNRS 1142, Institut de Génétique Humaine IGH, 141 rue de la Cardonille, 34396 Montpellier Cedex 5, France.
authors.forename: Marie-Paule
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Lefranc
authors.forename: Véronique
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Giudicelli
authors.forename: Quentin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Kaas
authors.forename: Elodie
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Duprat
authors.forename: Joumana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jabado-Michaloud
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Scaviner
authors.forename: Chantal
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ginestoux
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Clément
authors.forename: Denys
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chaume
authors.forename: Gérard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lefranc
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003628:Database Management Systems; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D030561:Databases, Nucleic Acid; D030562:Databases, Protein; D005803:Genes, Immunoglobulin; D019672:Genes, T-Cell Receptor; D023281:Genomics; D006801:Humans; D007125:Immunogenetics; D038622:Internationality; D008285:Major Histocompatibility Complex; D011487:Protein Conformation; D018511:Systems Integration; D014714:Vertebrates / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology