National Center for Biotechnology Information
National Center for Biotechnology Information
The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is a part of the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), a branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is located in Bethesda, Maryland and was founded in 1988. The pronunciation of the acronym NCBI is /ˈɛnˌsiːˈbaɪˈaɪ/.
Etymology
The name "National Center for Biotechnology Information" is derived from its role as a national resource for molecular biology information. The term "biotechnology" refers to the use of living systems and organisms to develop or make products, or "any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use" (UN Convention on Biological Diversity).
Function
The NCBI houses a series of databases relevant to biotechnology and biomedicine and is an important resource for bioinformatics tools and services. Major databases include GenBank for DNA sequences and PubMed, a bibliographic database for the biomedical literature. Other databases include the Protein Database and the Taxonomy Database.
Related Terms
- GenBank: The NIH genetic sequence database, an annotated collection of all publicly available DNA sequences.
- PubMed: A free search engine accessing primarily the MEDLINE database of references and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics.
- Protein Database: A database that documents the sequences of proteins.
- Taxonomy Database: A database that provides information on the scientific classification of organisms.
- Bioinformatics: The science of collecting and analyzing complex biological data such as genetic codes.
External links
- Medical encyclopedia article on National Center for Biotechnology Information
- Wikipedia's article - National Center for Biotechnology Information
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