Resources for Research

NIH and the organizations it supports make available to the research community a host of useful resources and repositories. You can find some of the research resources supported by NIH and external, independent organizations here.

NIH-Maintained Resources

The following data repositories, research tools, biobanks, and other resources are managed by NIH.

  • Alzheimer's Disease Preclinical Efficacy Database (AlzPED)
    • AlzPED is a publicly available, searchable data resource that aims to increase the transparency, reproducibility, and translatability of preclinical efficacy studies of candidate therapeutics for Alzheimer's disease. It is designed as a knowledge platform to disseminate data and analysis to scientists from academic centers, industry, and disease-focused foundations, promoting efficient and accurate preclinical therapy development for AD.
  • Chemical Effects in Biological Systems (CEBS)
    • CEBS is a public resource housing data relevant to environmental health scientists, with contributions from academic, industrial, and governmental laboratories.
  • DrugMatrix/ToxFX
    • DrugMatrix is one of the world's largest toxicogenomic reference resources.
  • Human DNA Polymerase Gamma Mutation Database
    • This database lists all known mutations in the coding region of the POLG gene and describes the associated diseases.
  • NCI Cancer Imaging Archive
    • A service that de-identifies and hosts a large archive of medical images of cancer for public download.
  • NCI Imaging Data Commons
    • A cloud-based repository of publicly available cancer imaging data co-located with analysis and exploration tools.
  • NCI Proteomic Data Commons
    • The PDC aims to make cancer-related proteomic datasets publicly accessible and facilitate multiomics integration in support of precision medicine.
  • NEIBank
    • A database of assembled EST data from eye tissue libraries supported by the National Eye Institute (NEI).
  • NIDDK Central Repository Resources for Research (R4R)
    • Facilitates sharing of data, biospecimens, and resources from studies supported by NIDDK, making them available for the broader research community.
  • NIEHS Domain Specific Data Repositories
    • A listing of various data repositories relevant to the research priorities of the National Institute of Environmental Health and Safety (NIEHS).
  • NIH Trans-NIH BioMedical Informatics Coordinating Committee (BMIC)
    • BMIC maintains an index of NIH-supported data repositories that offer data for reuse.
  • NIAID Discovery Portal
    • The NIAID Data Ecosystem Discovery Portal is a project from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to help researchers discover and analyze immune-mediated and infectious disease data. The Discovery Portal's goal is to make it easy for researchers to find and access immune-mediated and infectious disease data, regardless of where the data is stored.
  • NIMHD HDPulse
    • The HDPulse Data Portal provides statistics, interactive graphics, and maps showing health disparities across the U.S., with easy navigation and mobile access.
  • Public Access to Neuroactive & Anticonvulsant Chemical Evaluations (PANAChE)
    • PANAChE's mission is to support the discovery of new epilepsy treatments. It allows researchers to submit compounds for screening in rodent seizure models, conducted confidentially and at no cost through a University of Utah facility.

  • DAVID Functional Annotation Bioinformatics Microarray Analysis
    • DAVID provides a comprehensive set of functional annotation tools for investigators to understand biological meaning behind large lists of genes.
  • Disaster Research Response (DR2) Resources Portal
    • The Resource Portal is a repository of data collection tools and related resources curated by the DR2 Program to empower human health research in response to disasters and public health emergencies.
  • ICE: Integrated Chemical Environment
    • The Integrated Chemical Environment (ICE) database provides curated data from NICEATM, its partners, and other resources, as well as tools to facilitate the safety assessment of chemicals.
  • NHGRI Data Tools and Resources
    • Software and analysis tools developed by researchers at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) to help researchers around the world analyze and explore genomic data.
  • NIAMS Biodata Mining and Discovery Tools
    • Tools and utilities to support data analysis for WES, ChIP-Seq, ATAC-Seq, RNA-Seq, and Single Cell RNA-Seq based research projects.
  • NIEHS EpiShare
    • EpiShare is a web-based platform for sharing biospecimens and/or datasets with the greater research community.
  • NIMHD PhenX
    • The PhenX SDOH Toolkit provides standard data collection protocols that make it easier for investigators to select measures for use in their own research and to help with comparing, sharing, and combining data from different studies.
  • NIMHD Schare
    • SCHARE is a cloud-based platform for population science and data sets designed to fill critical health research and artificial intelligence gaps.
  • NLM Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications
    • The Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications (LHNCBC) furthers biomedicine through data science research and application development.
  • Open-i
    • Open-i is an NLM resource that enables search and retrieval of abstracts and images (including charts, graphs, clinical images, etc.) from open-source literature and biomedical image collections.
  • PubMed
    • PubMed comprises more than 38 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher websites.

  • AgingResearchBiobank
    • The AgingResearchBiobank is a central biorepository to provide a state-of-the-art inventory system for the storage and distribution of biospecimen collections to the broader scientific community.
  • National Cancer Institute Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research Branch (BBRB)
    • The BBRB of the National Cancer Institute strives to standardize the consistency and quality of biospecimens collected for use by investigators in research through the development and deployment of standard procurement and research standards.
  • NCI Specimen Resource Locator
    • The Specimen Resource Locator (SRL) is a biospecimen resource database designed to help researchers locate resources that may have the samples needed for their investigational use.

Non-NIH Resources

The following data repositories, research tools, biobanks, and other resources are not managed by NIH but many are supported by NIH funding.

  • Alliance of Genome Resources
    • The Alliance of Genome Resources (the Alliance) was established in 2016 and is a consortium of six Model Organism Databases and the Gene Ontology Consortium. The mission of the Alliance is to develop and maintain genome information resources for the scientific community that would facilitate the use of diverse model organisms in scientific research.
  • Antibody Registry
    • The Antibody Registry provides a stable, traceable, permanent identifier to all antibody products created by large commercial vendors and individual laboratories.
  • Binding Database
    • The Binding Database project aims to make experimental data on the noncovalent association of molecules in solution searchable. The initial focus is on biomolecular systems, but data on host-guest and supramolecular systems are also important and being included over time.
  • BMRB - Biological Magnetic Resonance Bank
    • BMRB collects, annotates, archives, and disseminates spectral and quantitative data from NMR spectroscopic investigations of biologically relevant molecules for structural and dynamic analyses of biomolecular NMR spectroscopy.
  • cBioPortal
    • The cBioPortal for Cancer Genomics was originally developed at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) to make complex cancer genomic data accessible and interpretable for cancer biologists and clinicians. The public cBioPortal site is hosted by the Center for Molecular Oncology at MSK.
  • Clinical Genome Resource (ClinGen)
    • Founded in 2013, ClinGen is a centralized resource that collects and archives information about clinically relevant genes and genomic variants for use in precision medicine and research. This NIH-funded consortium includes more than 1,700 contributors from more than 40 countries dedicated to expanding available genetic and genomic data.
  • Clin-STAR Database
    • The Clin-STAR Database is a search tool that enables collaboration among clinician-scientists in aging research across disciplines and career levels.
  • Contraceptive Infertility Target Database (CITDBase)
    • This public resource is a curation of public databases that lists human reproductive tract, reproductive system, and reproductive tissue-specific contraceptive gene and protein targets for investigators. The goal of CITDBase is to identify potential contraceptive gene and protein targets and foster collaborative efforts between investigators from different areas of contraceptive and infertility research.
  • EcoCyc: Encyclopedia of E. coli Genes and Metabolism
    • EcoCyc is a scientific database for Escherichia coli K-12 MG1655 bacterium and part of BioCyc Genome Database collection. This database performs literature-based curation of its genome and transcriptional regulation, transporters, and metabolic pathways.
  • Ensembl Genome Browser
    • The Ensembl Genome Browser is a genome database for eukaryotic organisms.
  • FlyBase
    • FlyBase is a database of Drosophila Genes and Genomes.
  • Gene Expression Database (GXD)
    • GXD collects and integrates gene expression information in the Mouse Genome Informatics database.
  • Gene Ontology Resource
    • The Gene Ontology Resource is a computational resource that collects biological knowledge into a large network structure that connects genes with the roles they play.
  • GeneNetwork GeneNetwork 2
    • GeneNetwork is a database and open-source bioinformatics software resource for systems genetics.
  • Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx)
    • GTEx is a comprehensive public resource for researchers studying tissue and cell-specific gene expression and regulation across individuals, development, and species, with data from 3 NIH projects.
  • GENSAT Brain Atlas
    • Gene Expression Nervous System Atlas (GENSAT) is a publicly available gene expression atlas of the developing and adult mouse central nervous system with images for ~3,500 genes. Approximately 1,500 BAC transgenic mouse lines are also available with specific green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporters or Cre recombinase-driven expression in the nervous system.
  • Global Substance Registration System
    • The Global Substance Registration System is a tool for accurately identifying and classifying substance ingredients in a wide range of regulated products, including pharmaceuticals, biologics, and chemicals.
  • The Down Syndrome Registry (DS-Connect)
    • DS Connect is a secure, web-based national resource for storing and sharing demographic and health information about people with Down syndrome.
  • Human Epigenome Atlas (Genboree)
    • Genboree provides Human reference epigenomes and the results of their integrative and comparative analyses, providing detailed insights into locus-specific epigenomic states like histone marks and DNA methylation across tissues and cell types, developmental stages, physiological conditions, genotypes, and disease states.
  • Human Oral Microbiome Database (eHOMD)
    • eHOMD provides comprehensive, curated information on bacteria in the human mouth and aerodigestive tract, including the pharynx, nasal passages, sinuses, and esophagus.
  • Human Salivary Proteome
    • A collaborative, community-based web portal of human saliva proteins identified by high-throughput proteomic technologies.
  • Immunological Genome Project
    • The Immunological Genome Project (ImmGen) is a collaborative group of immunology and computational biology labs who join forces and expertise to perform a broad and deep dissection of the genome's activity and its regulation in the immune system of the mouse.
  • Informatics Resources for Glycoscience (GlyGen)
    • The GlyGen knowledgebase is an essential resource for glycobiology and related domains through integration, harmonization, and annotation of data describing glycan and glycoconjugate dynamics in health and disease.
  • Medical Imaging and Data Resource Center (MIDRC)
    • The open-source MIDRC Data Commons supports the management, analysis, and sharing of medical imaging data for the improvement of patient outcomes.
  • MoTrPAC Data Hub
    • The Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium (MoTrPAC) program aims to better understand mechanisms of how physical activity improves health and prevents disease. The consortium manages the MoTrPAC DataHub which contains experimental multi-omics datasets on endurance training studies of 6-month-old rats in 19 different tissues and organ systems.
  • PeptideAtlas
    • PeptideAtlas is a multi-organism, publicly accessible compendium of peptides identified in a large set of tandem mass spectrometry proteomics experiments. Mass spectrometer output files are collected for human, mouse, yeast, and several other organisms, and searched using the latest search engines and protein sequences.
  • PhysioNet
    • PhysioNet offers free web access to large collections of recorded physiologic signals (PhysioBank) and related open-source software (PhysioToolkit). The goal of the site is to promote, catalyze, and perform basic-to-bedside research in complex biomedical systems by making physiologic and clinical data available in open Internet-accessible archives; developing innovative open-source software for the exploration and analysis of physiologic data; and creating a multidisciplinary "laboratory without walls" to facilitate the discovery of basic and translational information on complex physiologic signals.
  • ProteomicsDB
    • ProteomicsDB is a multi-omics and multi-organism resource for life science research. It covers various types of data, including proteomics, transcriptomics, and phenomics data for organisms such as humans, mice, Arabidopsis, and rice. Different visualizations are available, allowing for protein- and drug-centric interrogation, as well as combined analysis through our analytics section.
  • Spin Trap Database
    • The Spin Trap Database is a database of more than 10,000 records of published Spin Trapping experiments. The database includes the experimental results (e.g. hyperfine coupling constants) and journal reference information.
  • The Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD)
    • CTD is a robust, publicly available database that aims to advance understanding about how environmental exposures affect human health. It provides manually curated information about chemical–gene/protein interactions, chemical–disease and gene–disease relationships.
  • The Tufts Dental Database
    • The Tufts Dental Database is an X-ray panoramic radiography image dataset consisting of 1,000 panoramic dental radiography images with expert labeling of abnormalities and teeth.
  • UniProt
    • A comprehensive, high-quality and freely accessible resource of protein sequence and functional information.
  • WormBase
    • Provides accurate, current, accessible information concerning the genetics, genomics and biology of C. elegans and related nematodes.
  • Xenbase
    • Provides a comprehensive, integrated and easy to use web-based resource that gives access to the diverse and rich genomic, expression and functional data available from Xenopus research.
  • Yale University Open Data Access Project (YODA)
    • The YODA Project provides a means for rigorous and objective evaluation of clinical trial data to ensure that patients and physicians possess all necessary information about a drug or device when making treatment decisions. This process includes making participant-level clinical research data available for analysis by external investigators.

  • FAIR Cookbook
    • An online, open and live resource for the Life Sciences with recipes that help you to make and keep data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR).
  • HealthMeasures
    • HealthMeasures consists of PROMIS, Neuro-QoL, ASCQ-Me, and NIH Toolbox. These four precise, flexible, and comprehensive measurement systems assess physical, mental, and social health, symptoms, well-being and life satisfaction; along with sensory, motor, and cognitive function.
  • Mass Spectrometry Interactive Virtual Environment (MassIVE)
    • This data-sharing infrastructure develops standards, workflows, and data indexes to advance FAIR access to proteomics mass spectrometry (MS) datasets within the MassIVE repository of MS data and the ProteomeCentral data portal for the global ProteomeXchange consortium of proteomics MS data repositories.
  • National Resource for Network Biology (NRNB)
    • NRNB provides a freely available, open-source suite of software technology that broadly enables network-based visualization, analysis, and biomedical discovery for NIH-funded researchers.
  • National Resource for Translational and Developmental Proteomics
    • The National Resource for Translational and Developmental Proteomics (NRTDP) is dedicated to accelerating a significant shift in how protein molecules are analyzed by mass spectrometry with a focus on intact protein measurements.
  • NCATS OpenData Portal
    • NCATS OpenData Portal was created to share and visualize this data in real-time to accelerate discovery and guide the exploration of new therapeutic hypotheses. It grew to include large, curated datasets of public data, including variant therapeutic activity, and in vivo and clinical studies.
  • NCBO BioPortal
    • BioPortal provides a knowledgebase that integrates more than 800 biomedical ontologies, making it easy for scientists and clinicians to use the resulting knowledge to describe their data, to access information more reliably, to build other knowledge resources in standardized ways, and to bring biomedical knowledge both to the laboratory and to the point of care.
  • Online Resource for Integrative Omics (ORIOS)
    • A web-based platform for rapid integration of next generation sequencing data.
  • OutreachPro
    • A free, online recruitment materials generator that allows researchers and research teams to create customized outreach materials that support brain health education and encourage participation in Alzheimer's and related dementias clinical trials, particularly among underrepresented communities.
  • Research Resource Identification Portal (RRID)
    • The Resource Identification Portal was created in support of the Resource Identification Initiative, which aims to promote research resource identification, discovery, and reuse. The portal offers a central location for obtaining and exploring Research Resource Identifiers (RRIDs) - persistent and unique identifiers for referencing a research resource. This portal relies on the good work of many community repositories such as MGI, Addgene, MMRRC, and Cellosaurus.
  • Resource for Quantitative Elemental Mapping for the Life Sciences
    • The Resource for Elemental Imaging for Life Sciences (QE-MAP) is developing emerging technologies for quantitative evaluation of inorganic signatures in cells and tissues that are essential to understanding the regulation of physiological and pathogenic processes and developmental decisions.

  • Duke Human Heart Repository
    • Sponsored and managed by Duke University School of Medicine and Duke Surgery, the Duke Human Heart Repository is an ongoing repository of heart tissues from failing and non-failing hearts for research. Grant writers and collaborators are invited to contact the repository director directly to use the Repository as a tissue resource.
  • Jackson Laboratories Cytogenetic Models Resource
    • The Jackson Laboratory Cytogenetic Models Resource maintains and distributes chromosome aberration stocks that provide primarily mouse models for Down syndrome.
  • Jackson Laboratories Neural Tube Defects Resource
    • The Jackson Laboratory Neural Tube Defects Resource maintains and distributes mouse models for neural tube defects.
  • Deltagen and Lexicon Knockout Mice and Phenotypic Data Resource
    • NIH has contracted with Deltagen Inc., and Lexicon Genetics Inc., to provide the agency and its scientific partners with access to 251 lines of knockout mice that have been extensively characterized.
  • Human Endometrial Tissue and DNA Bank
    • The goal of this tissue bank is to serve as an evolving bioinformatics resource on genes associated with the uterus.
  • Aging Cell Repository
    • To facilitate aging research on cells in culture, the NIA provides support for the NIA Aging Cell Repository, located at the Coriell Institute for Medical Research in Camden, NJ. Included are skin fibroblast cultures from individuals with premature aging syndromes, including Werner and Hutchinson-Guilford (progeria), cultures from clinically documented and at-risk individuals from families exhibiting familial Alzheimer's disease, differentiated cell lines, and cell lines from animals. The repository also has DNA from many of the cell lines, available individually or in panels such as the Primate DNA panel, Aging Syndrome DNA panel, Characterized Alzheimer's disease mutation DNA panel, Early and Late Onset Alzheimer's disease DNA panels, and Aged Sib Pairs DNA panel.
  • Heart Centre Biobank
    • A biorepository and registry of patients with congenital and other forms of heart disease. The Heart Centre Biobank provides a resource for investigators to study the genetic and environmental causes of heart defects and other diseases through the study of DNA, tissue, and skin samples from affected patients.
  • Kaiser Permanente Research Bank
    • A nationwide research bank that facilitates studies related to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease. The KP Research Bank includes information from three sources—genetic information from a blood sample, comprehensive medical record information, and survey data on lifestyle and health issues not captured in the medical record.
  • Knockout Mouse Project (KOMP)
    • KOMP is a trans-NIH initiative that aims to generate a comprehensive and public resource comprised of mice containing a null mutation in every gene in the mouse genome.
  • National Centralized Repository for Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias
    • This NIH-funded repository provides resources that help researchers identify the genes that contribute to Alzheimer's and related dementias. NCRAD collects and maintains biological specimens and associated data on study volunteers from a variety of sources, such as participants enrolled at the ADRCs, as well as those in the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) study, the ARTFL LEFFTDS Longitudinal Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration (ALLFTD) study, and other Alzheimer's and related dementias studies. Biological samples banked at NCRAD include but are not limited to DNA, plasma, serum, RNA, CSF, cell lines (PBMCs, iPSCs, LCLs, etc.), and brain tissue.
  • Reproductive Genomics Program: Mutant Models for Infertility
    • This program uses ENU mutagenesis to produce mouse models of infertility and includes mutagenesis of the mouse genome, phenotypic screening for infertility mutations, and regional mapping of each mutation to a chromosome. Breeding stock is available for scientists interested in using these models in their own research programs.

  • International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories
    • The International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories is an international forum that addresses the technical, legal, ethical, and managerial issues relevant to repositories of biological and environmental specimens.
  • Cochrane Neonatal Collaborative Reviews
    • These reviews provide access to current evidence in neonatology and help to reduce the gap between the time when a treatment's effectiveness and safety is established in research and its routine use by healthcare providers.

  • Center for Open Biomage Analysis (COBA)
    • COBA provides quantitative image analysis software tools that have broad applicability in biological optical microscopy.
  • Centers of the MR3 Network | NCMRR
    • This network of centralized research infrastructure assists young faculty at the formative stage of their careers. MR3 centers provide workshops and courses, mentorship and collaborative opportunities, access to state-of-the-art facilities, and pilot grants in domains particularly relevant to rehabilitation researchers. The network offers a broad range of expertise including regenerative medicine, clinical aspects of neuromodulation, biomechanics and modelling of movement, clinical trial design, health services and analysis of large datasets, and technology assessment and product development.
  • CHARGE Consortium
    • The CHARGE Consortium is conducting a meta-analysis of GWAS data for smoking cessation among subjects of European ancestry. This effort includes several prospective cohort studies such as ARIC, CHS, Rotterdam, Framingham, and Nurses' Health Study.
  • Connectome Coordination Facility
    • The Connectome Coordination Facility houses and distributes public research data for a series of studies that focus on the connections within the human brain known as Human Connectome Projects.
  • National Center for Dynamic Interactome Research (NCDIR)
    • NCDIR combines expertise in cell biology, genetics, mass spectrometry, and computational structural biology to develop new integrated approaches for the detection, isolation, and analysis of macromolecular complexes that make up the dynamic cellular interactome.
  • National Center for Quantitative Biology of Complex Systems (NCQBCS)
    • NCQBCS is developing next-generation protein, metabolite, and lipid measurement technologies for a wide variety of biomedical applications and making whole omic analysis faster and broadly accessible.
  • Rochester Epidemiology Project
    • A collaboration of clinics, hospitals, and other medical facilities in Minnesota and Wisconsin and involves community members who have agreed to share their medical records for research. Using medical record information, medical scientists can discover what causes the diseases, how patients respond to medical and surgical therapies, and what will happen to patients in the future. Research studies conducted in the local community may improve the health of people both locally and globally.
This page last updated on: June 17, 2025
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