Ewan Birney of the European Bioinformatics Institute (above) and Elspeth Bruford of University College London have been awarded a biomedical resources grant to take on the task of assigning nomenclature to human genes.

The Human Genome Organisation's Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC) is the only authority worldwide providing unique, standardised nomenclature for human genes – essential housekeeping to avoid confusion and promote data sharing. HGNC will move from University College London to the European Bioinformatics Institute, a leading centre for analysis and annotation of the human genome.