In Support of the 2024 NIH Public Access Policy As part of continued enhancements to offerings to support NIH-funded researchers and institutions with compliance with the 2024 NIH Public Access Policy, the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the National Library of Medicine (NLM) recently updated the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) system to facilitate review of … Continue reading Updates to the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) System →

5 May 2026

Announcing brownout periods when rsync will be disabled  As we previously announced, NCBI will discontinue support for the rsync protocol on June 1, 2026, as part of our ongoing effort to enhance security and efficiency. After June 1, attempts to connect to ftp.ncbi.nlm.gov using rsync will fail. To support this transition, we are announcing two temporary “brownout” periods. During these planned intervals, rsync access will be intentionally disabled … Continue reading Reminder! NCBI is Retiring rsync for FTP Downloads June 1, 2026 →

29 April 2026

GenBank release 271.0 (4/14/2026) is now available on the NCBI FTP site. This release has 53.90 trillion bases and 6.27 billion records.  The current release has:   261,460,182 traditional records containing 7,289,942,983,522 base pairs of sequence data 4,756,526,485 WGS records containing 45,628,511,953,497 base pairs of sequence data 1,058,643,373 bulk-oriented TSA records containing 898,651,493,967 base pairs of … Continue reading GenBank Release 271.0 is Available! →

27 April 2026

ClinVar is a free, public resource you can use to research the clinical significance of genetic variants. Many people visit ClinVar multiple times a day! We previously announced an upcoming enhanced search experience and new ClinVar homepage, and these improvements are now live.  What’s new?   Search enhancements  The new search interface provides different search boxes for the types of terms typically used to search ClinVar. These search … Continue reading ClinVar’s New Search Interface and Homepage are Here! →

23 April 2026

In September 2025, PubMed Central (PMC) launched a new full text search. Some previously available features were not included in the initial release. Now, PMC is rolling out additional search features based on your feedback.  What’s new?  Page navigation   PMC recently updated the search results interface to make it easier to navigate your results and customize how they appear.  Page navigation now appears at both the top and bottom of the … Continue reading PMC Continues to Improve New Search →

22 April 2026

Average Nucleotide Identity (ANI) analysis is a useful tool to verify taxonomic accuracy. It compares submitted genome assemblies against reference data generated from “type material,” the official specimen or culture designated when a new species is formally characterized. We previously applied this approach to prokaryotic genome validation, with comparisons running every day to provide up-to-date … Continue reading Strengthening Fungal Genomics: Using Average Nucleotide Identity (ANI) to Verify Yeast Species Identity →

20 April 2026

If you use NCBI’s MedGen then you probably know it is your one-stop-shop for access to genetic phenotype information. If you’re new to the resource, check us out!  MedGen is improving the usability of the website and enhancing its data processing abilities. We want to hear from you to help us improve MedGen to better meet your needs.  Let us know:   How you currently use MedGen   How we … Continue reading MedGen Users: Request for Feedback! →

15 April 2026

Download the updated bacterial and archaeal reference genome collection! We built this collection of 23,063 genomes by selecting the “best” genome assembly for each species among the 450,000+ prokaryotic genomes in RefSeq.   What’s new?   Two species are represented in this collection for the first time   283 species are represented by a better assembly  Six species were removed because of changes in NCBI Taxonomy … Continue reading Now Available: Updated Bacterial and Archaeal Reference Genome Collection →

9 April 2026

NCBI, part of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), is excited to announce our new Beta homepage! It represents the first phase of a multi-year effort to modernize many pages on our website. We are working to improve your experience so you can find and access NCBI resources quickly and easily.   What’s new?  The Beta homepage and several other Beta … Continue reading Now Available! Preview the NCBI Beta Homepage Today →

26 March 2026

To ensure the security and long-term stability of our data delivery infrastructure, NCBI will discontinue support for the rsync protocol on June 1, 2026. After June 1, attempts to connect to ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov using rsync will fail.  What do you need to do?  Please review your automated scripts and pipelines for any rsync calls and replace them with alternative tools.   FTP and HTTPS access will remain available, but if you’re using rsync you … Continue reading NCBI Will Retire rsync Support for FTP Downloads on June 1, 2026  →

25 March 2026