CNCR (MCN & FGA), together with the Stanley Center at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, MA, USA coordinates an international gene annotation effort for pre- and postsynaptic genes. The GO-consortium is our annotation partner.

The central aim of the SynGO project is to provide consistent, evidence-based annotation of synaptic gene products. as a universal reference for synapse research and to facilitate enrichment studies in large scale -omics data (GWAS, expression profiling, proteomics).

The SynGO project was initiated by Steve Hyman and Guoping Feng at the Stanley Center (Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA) and is also financed by the Broad Institute. SynGO builds on prior initiatives generated in European consortia on synapse research EU-Synapse, EuroSpin and SynSys. Guus Smit & Matthijs Verhage coordinate the project.

The key objectives of the SynGO project are:
• generate transparent, open structure with minimal a priori decisions
• team up with key opinion leaders in the field (achieve consensus)
• team up with best ontology platform: GO-consortium

The GO-consortium is a well-established international effort to develop a gene-centric computational model of biological systems. Started in 1998, the GO resources include an ontology with ~40,000 concepts relevant to gene function, and millions of annotations (statements about the function of specific gene products, linked to evidence).

The SynGO consortium participants (as present at the initial 2014 SynGO jamboree):

The team of professional gene annotators that designed SynGO annotation structure and oversees annotation by experts: