IPD—the Immuno Polymorphism Database

The Immuno Polymorphism Database (IPD) (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/ipd/) is a set of specialist databases related to the study of polymorphic genes in the immune system. The IPD project works with specialist groups or nomenclature committees who provide and curate individual sections before they are submitted to IPD for online publication. The IPD project stores all the data in a set of related databases. IPD currently consists of four databases: IPD-KIR, contains the allelic sequences of Killer-cell Immunoglobulin-like Receptors, IPD-MHC, is a database of sequences of the Major Histocompatibility Complex of different species; IPD-human platelet antigens, alloantigens expressed only on platelets and IPD-ESTDAB, which provides access to the European Searchable Tumour cell-line database, a cell bank of immunologically characterised melanoma cell lines. The data is currently available online from the website and ftp directory.