[1][2] It stemmed from an Expressed Sequence Tag (EST) project that began at The Genome Institute at Washington University School of Medicine.
The site was launched in 2000 to accompany the project “A Genomic Approach to Parasites from the Phylum Nematoda,”[3] funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
It was created to provide access to the data from this project and as a broader resource for the scientific community studying parasitic nematodes.
[4] Human parasitic nematodes, or roundworms, have wide-ranging global health implications, producing a disease burden that exceeds malaria and tuberculosis.
[4] The site now also provides tools for viewing protein and metabolic pathways,[8] and a comparative genomics platform that can aid in nematode drug, vaccine and pesticide research.