IMGT registered , the international ImMunoGeneTics information system registered

IMGT registered , the international ImMunoGeneTics information system registered (http://www.imgt.org), was created in 1989 by Marie-Paule Lefranc, Laboratoire d'ImmunoGenetique Moleculaire LIGM (Universite Montpellier 2 and CNRS) at Montpellier, France, in order to standardize and manage the complexity of immunogenetics data. The building of a unique ontology, IMGT-ONTOLOGY, has made IMGT registered the global reference in immunogenetics and immunoinformatics. IMGT registered is a high-quality integrated knowledge resource specialized in the immunoglobulins or antibodies, T cell receptors, major histocompatibility complex, of human and other vertebrate species, proteins of the IgSF and MhcSF, and related proteins of the immune systems of any species. IMGT registered provides a common access to standardized data from genome, proteome, genetics and 3D structures. IMGT registered consists of five databases (IMGT/LIGM-DB, IMGT/GENE-DB, IMGT/3Dstructure-DB, etc.), fifteen interactive online tools for sequence, genome and 3D structure analysis, and more than 10 000 HTML pages of synthesis and knowledge. IMGT registered is used in medical research (autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases, AIDS, leukemias, lymphomas and 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, vaccinology). IMGT is freely available at http://www.imgt.org.