Ensembl is currently undergoing a major transformation to provide faster, more flexible, and more scalable access to genome data. As outlined in our Ensembl 2026 publication, work on the new platform is well underway and can already be explored at beta.ensembl.org. In this blog, we are sharing important information about upcoming changes to Ensembl data access, including timelines, new services, and what you need to do to prepare.
Continue readingEnsembl Rapid Release has been archived
The Ensembl Rapid Release site (rapid.ensembl.org) has been archived, and is now available at: rapid-archive.ensembl.org. Any hardcoded URLs with the prefix “rapid.ensembl.org” will redirect to the new Ensembl site at beta.ensembl.org.
Continue readingCool stuff Ensembl VEP can do: annotate structural variants with gnomAD allele frequencies and ClinVar clinical significance
To support the filtering and interpretation of structural variants (SVs), the Ensembl VEP web interface has been extended in release 115 to annotate them with allele frequencies from gnomAD and clinical significance from ClinVar.
Continue readingCool stuff Ensembl VEP can do: reporting functional assay results from MaveDB
Ensembl VEP makes it easy to annotate your variants with the reference data essential to variant filtering and interpretation. This includes the results of multiplex assays of variant effect (MAVEs) which report on observed cellular phenotypes across nearly all possible variants in specific targeted regulatory or coding regions.
Continue readingGetting to know us Jorge from Ensembl Outreach
Welcome to our Getting to know us (a.k.a. Teamsembl) blog series, where we talk to Ensembl colleagues and ask them a series of questions about their role in the project. For this month, we chatted with Jorge Batista da Rocha, who is the project leader of the Ensembl Outreach team. Join us as we learn more about Jorge’s role at Ensembl.
Continue readingEnsembl 115 has been released!
We are pleased to announce the release of Ensembl 115, and the corresponding release of Ensembl Genomes 62. In this release – around 121,000 new protein-coding transcripts have been added to the GRCh38 human reference gene set. Two new breeds of cattle are now available (UOA_Tuli_1 and UOA_Wagyu_1) and the sheep reference has been updated to ARS-UI_Ramb_v3.0. Seven new plant species have been added: four oats, two garden peas, and one lablab bean. We have also added two new export modes for Newick trees which help to avoid stable ID clashes.
Continue readingDowntime of Ensembl Tools
Please note that due to planned maintenance, Ensembl Tools will be unavailable from Tuesday, September 9 2025, at 08:30 AM BST until Wednesday, September 10 2025, at 08:30 AM BST.
Jobs submitted during the maintenance window will be queued and processed once maintenance is complete.
We apologise for the inconvenience. Services will be resumed as soon as the work has been completed. If you have any questions about the planned maintenance work, please contact us via the Ensembl Helpdesk.
What’s coming in Ensembl release 115 / Ensembl Genomes 62?
Ensembl 115 and Ensembl Genomes 62 are expected in September 2025. Check out what we’re up to, although we can’t guarantee everything listed here will make it into the final release.
Continue readingGetting to know us: Suzanna Dickson (visiting PhD student)
Welcome to our Teamsembl blog series, where we chat with folks from the Ensembl team to get a peek into what they do. This month, we got to know Suzanna Dickson, a visiting PhD student with the Ensembl Non-Vertebrates team. Check out what Suzanna has been up to during her placement and hear about her experiences working with us!
Continue readingIntegrated Release available now on Ensembl Beta
We have released a coordination of genomic resources and analyses to the new Ensembl site: Ensembl Beta – https://beta.ensembl.org/. This Integrated Release, “Beta Release 2025-02”, contains 2,919 genomes, which are available for current and long-term use.
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