A blue navigation bar at the top of the browser provides links to several other tools and data sources. For instance, under the "View" menu, the "DNA" link enables the user to view the raw genomic DNA sequence for the coordinate range displayed in the browser window. This DNA can encode track features via elaborate text formatting options. Other links tie the Genome Browser to the BLAT alignment tool, provide access to the underlying relational database via the Table Browser, convert coordinates across different assembly dates, and open the window at the -complementary Ensembl or +complementary Ensembl or NCBI Genome Data Viewer annotation.
The browser data represents an immense collaborative effort involving thousands of people from the international biomedical research community. The UCSC Bioinformatics Group itself does no sequencing. Although it creates the majority of the annotation tracks in-house, the annotations are based on publicly available data contributed by many labs and research groups throughout the world. Several of the Genome Browser annotations are generated in collaboration with outside individuals or are contributed wholly by external research groups. UCSC's other major roles include building genome assemblies, creating the Genome Browser work environment, and serving it online. The majority of the sequence data, annotation tracks, and even software are in the public domain and are available for anyone to download.
In addition to the Genome Browser, the UCSC Genome Bioinformatics group provides several other tools for viewing and interpreting genome data: