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Aim


The Atlas of Genetics and Cytogenetics in Oncology and Haematology is a peer reviewed on-line journal, encyclopaedia and database in free access on the Internet, devoted to genes, cytogenetics, and clinical entities in cancer, and cancer-prone diseases. The Atlas aims to cover the entire field under study: as the task is huge, the Atlas is -and will be- incomplete by that very fact.

It presents structured reviews (cards) in a portal towards genetics and/or cancer databases and journals, teaching items in Genetics for students in Medicine and in Sciences.

It deals with cancer research and genomics, being at the crossroads of research, virtual medical university (university and post-university e-learning) and telemedicine.

It is made for and by clinicians and researchers in cytogenetics, molecular biologis, oncologists, haematologists, and pathologists.

The Atlas is a not-for-profit organization, in open free access for readers. It relies on individual donations, grants (scientific societies, charities), higher education and health care public institutions.

The Atlas is a collaborative effort!

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. The Atlas is made of 45,000 pages, including "automatic" pages generated by computer programs (e.g. "Non-annotated" genes) with Philippe Dessen's expertise) with an iconography of about 35,000 images, 40,000 internal links and 730,000 external links. Printed, it would be about 200,000 pages, with 5,500 unique visitors every day. The "Scientific Journal" version of the Atlas (see http://documents.irevues.inist.fr/handle/2042/15655 ) is indexed in Scopus/Embase, and, in many countries, it is of significant value for your young collaborators to have papers indexed in Scopus. Next step would/should be PubMed.

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. Dan van Dyke said "This is one stop shopping that unifies cancer genetics information", and Lidia Larizza said that the Atlas was an "interdisciplinary resource". 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"; 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 equivalent.

In 2018, Jean Loup Huret asked Jesús María Hernández Rivas (Salamanca, Spain) and Paola Dal Cin (Boston, Massachusetts) to become Co-Editors in Chief, Jesús being in charge of the Hematology, Paola in charge of Solid Tumors and Jean Loup Huret remaining the Editor in Chief for the field of Genes/Cell Biology/Cancer-prone diseases. The Atlas database has been renewed and moved to Salamanca and in 2022, the Atlas 2.0 has been launched.

After 25 years building the Atlas day after day, Jean Loup Huret and Philippe Dessen will take a little rest and wish long life to the Atlas and to the whole community of clinicians and researchers.

Editorial Board


In Progress

We would like to thank all people involved in this Project in the last 3 years, who have make it possible to get the Atlas 2.0 up and running.

  • Haematology:
    • Marina Lafage-Pochitaloff (Marseille, France)
    • Lucienne Michaux (Brussels, Belgium)
    • Margarita Ortega (Barcelona, Spain)
    • Gaya Avetisyan(Valencia, Spain)
    • Mireia Atance (Madrid, Spain)
    • Maribel Forero (Tunja, Colombia)
    • Liz Pardo (Bogotá, Colombia)
    • Ana Battle (Santander, Spain)
    • Rocío Salgado (Madrid, Spain)
    • Esperanza Such (Valencia, Spain)
    • Sara Alonso (Oviedo, Spain)
    • Marco Antonio Moro (Oviedo, Spain)
  • Solid Tumor
    • Rita Alaggio (Roma, Italy)
    • Judy Bovee (Leiden,The Netherland)
    • Mass General Brigham Pathology teams (Boston, USA): Michelle Hirsch, Jason Hornick, Marisa Nucci ,Yen P(rex) Hung, , Vicky Jo, David Papke, Carlos Parra-Heran, Brad Quade, Inga-Marie Schaeffer, Lynette Sholl.
    • Roberta Vanni (Cagliari, Italy)
  • NGS
    • William Tinge (Suzhou, China)
    • Yulei Shen (Detroit, USA)
    • Chunxiao Yang (Suzhou, China)
    • Zhiheng Li (Suzhou, China)
    • David Zhang (New York, USA)
    • Yingchun Wang (Atlanta, USA)

Guidelines for Citing the Atlas


Citation in general

Atlas of Genetics and Cytogenetics in Oncology and Haematology. URL http://AtlasGeneticsOncology.org


Citation for the whole project

Atlas of genetics and cytogenetics in oncology and haematology in 2013. Huret JL, Ahmad M, Arsaban M, Bernheim A, Cigna J, Desangles F, Guignard JC, Jacquemot-Perbal MC, Labarussias M, Leberre V, Malo A, Morel-Pair C, Mossafa H, Potier JC, Texier G, Viguié F, Yau Chun Wan-Senon S, Zasadzinski A, Dessen P. Nucleic Acids Res. 2013 Jan;41(Database issue):D920-4. PMID:23161685

- An internet database on genetics in oncology
Huret JL, Dessen P, Bernheim A.
Oncogene 2003; 22: 1907.

- Lifelines: browsing the cancer catalogue.
Pearson H.
Nature Science Updates 31/5/2001.

- Fingerprinting a killer.
Kaiser J.
Science 8 June 2001; Vol 292: 1803.

Grants/funding


Association des Cytogénéticiens de Langue Française.
Association de Cytogénétique du Québec
Belgian Society of Human Genetics

Association des Cytogénéticiens de Langue Française.

Association de Cytogénétique du Québec

Belgian Society of Human Genetics