GWAS Central

The Human Genome Bi-Allelic SEquence (HGBASE) database^[1] was the first version of what is now GWAS Central.^[2] It was first released in August 1998, focusing on providing a centralized collection of known human single nucleotide polymorphisms and other simple DNA variants. It was the first publicly available SNP database. The project was expanded over the next year by a consortium including the Karolinska Institute, the European Bioinformatics Institute and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. Corporate support was provided by Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline. The version released in November 2001 was renamed the Human Genome Variation database (HGVbase),^[3] as this was a better reflection of the scope of the database and its emphasis on collection from many different laboratories. In addition this also highlighted its new role as a central repository for data collection efforts in collaboration with the Human Genome Variation Society^{[citation needed]}

HGVbase was scaled back in 2004 to simply provide an alternative representation of the full marker list from dbSNP, but development continued on its successor: the Human Genome Variation Genotype-to-Phenotype database (HGVbaseG2P),^[4] in many ways the natural evolution of HGVbase into a central database for summary-level genetic association data. The work was originally funded by GlaxoSmithKline, the University of Leicester, and the European Community's Sixth Framework Programme ('INFOBIOMED' Network of Excellence), but the GEN2PHEN project became the main source of funds in 2008. Early work in the project involved devising a powerful way of modeling phenotype and genotype- phenotype data, which itself was adopted and adapted to become the global standard Phenotype And Genotype Experiment Object model.^[5] In 2008 HGVbaseG2P went live and extended the project's content and scope by adding a far broader and more comprehensive range of markers (i.e., SNPs, structural variants, and STSs), along with association data from many genetic association studies.^{[citation needed]}

In February 2010, the project was once again renamed to GWAS Central, to reflect the growing focus on genome-wide association studies. GWAS Central is a core component of the GEN2PHEN project and intends to provide an operational model, plus an open-source software package, so others can create similar databases across the world. These will be hosted by institutes, consortia, and even individual laboratories; providing those groups a toolkit for publicising and publishing their genetic association findings on the web and examine their data alongside others data from similar valuable resources.^{[citation needed]}

• GWAS Central
• GEN2PHEN project
• Phenotype And Genotype Experiment Object model