Historical Survey

In 1997, Jean Loup Huret created the Atlas (someone said "the Wikipedia of Cancer Genetics before Wikipedia"), with Philippe Dessen as the Database Director, who built and maintained the database.

The Atlas contains nearly 3,000 papers and 10,000 pages, written by more than 3,500 authors. Its total content includes 45,000 pages enriched with automatically generated entries (e.g., data on non-annotated genes, developed with Philippe Dessen’s expertise), an iconography of about 35,000 images, 40,000 internal links and 730,000 external links. If printed, it would be about 200,000 pages. It attracts 5,500 unique visitors daily, reflecting its global impact in advancing research.

The Atlas combines different types of knowledge: genes and their function, cell biology, pathological data, diseases and their clinical implications, cytogenetics, but also medical genetics, with hereditary disorders associated with an increased risk of cancer. This gives a wider and more global view of cancer genetics, while these data are usually dispersed. The Atlas is the only genetic site where the prognosis is included. Dr.Dan van Dyke praised it as "This is one stop shopping that unifies cancer genetics information", while Dr.Lidia Larizza described it as that the Atlas was an "interdisciplinary resource". Dr.Felix Mitelman said: -"This systematic collection of cytogenetic and genetic aberrations (…) the molecular outcome (…) and the clinical consequences (….) has grown into a truly monumental encyclopedic work of great importance"; Dr.Janet Rowley said: "In the future I will undoubtedly rely on your Website rather than trying to keep up with the literature myself". It is an original/unique database without an equivalent.

In 2018, the Atlas entered a new phase with the appointment of Paola Dal Cin (Boston, USA) and Jesús M. Hernández Rivas (Salamanca, Spain) as Editors- in-Chief. Under their leadership, the Atlas database was renewed, relocated to Salamanca, and relaunched as Atlas 2.0 in 2022.

The editorial team has since expanded to include Alessandro Beghini (Milano, Italy), Juan Luis García (Salamanca, Spain), and Sheng Xiao (Suzhou, China) as Co-Editors in Chief, reflecting the Atlas’s growing international scope and commitment to advancing cancer genetics and genomics worldwide.

After 25 years of dedicated daily effort building the Atlas day after day, Dr.Jean Loup Huret and Philippe Dessen will take a well-deserved rest and extending their wishes for a long life to the Atlas and to the whole community of clinicians and researchers.

Editorial Board

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all those who have contributed to this project over the past three years. Their dedication and collaborative effort made it possible to bring Atlas 2.0 to life and ensure its successful launch and growth.

Grants/funding