---
author: einar
comments: true
date: 2007-11-15 19:57:16+00:00
layout: page
slug: gene-identifiers
title: Gene identifiers
wordpress_id: 336
categories:
- Science
header:
    image_fullwidth: "banner_other.jpg"
tags:
- annotation
- bioinformatics
- microarray
- python
---

While working today on an annotation class in Python I stumbled on a problem. Normally I work with lists of genes that are consistent, i.e. all Entrez Gene IDs (or RefSeq IDs, or Genome Browser IDs...), but today I had a list of mixed identifiers.

The subsequent idea was "let's implement auto-detection of common identifiers in the class". The problem is... is there any actual documentation on how identifiers are made? So far, using regular expressions, I've tracked down a few:



	
  * RefSeq

	
  * GenBank

	
  * Entrez Gene

	
  * UCSC Genome Browser

	
  * Ensembl


However, I have no idea if I have implemented all types of these IDs. Does anyone know a place where to look these information up?

(On a related note: my thesis defense will be on January 14th, 2008, so I have to get the printing going)