The Ensembl project was started in 1999 to annotate the human genome and make all data publicly and freely available via the web. Many more genomes have since been added to Ensembl and the range of available data has also expanded to include comparative genomics, variation and regulatory data.

The project consist of 8 teams, totalling around 40 to 50 people:

• Genebuild – creates the gene sets for the various species
• Core software – maintain the core API
• Compara – produce comparative data and its associated API
• Variation – produce variation data and API
• Regulation – create the regulatory build and the funcgen API
• Web – maintain and develop the Ensembl websites
• Production – manage the Ensembl release cycle and the Ensembl BioMart
• Outreach – run the helpdesk and workshops

More information can be found on our main website, www.ensembl.org.

Ensembl is based at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), located on the Wellcome Genome Campus in Hinxton, south of the city of Cambridge, United Kingdom