Recent research has uncovered an abundance of structural variants within the human genome. These variations are characterized as large gains and losses (e.g. insertions, deletions, inversions, copy number variations, etc) of DNA sequence. The Database of Genomic Variants (DGV) aims to provide a comprehensive summary of these structural variations in the human genome. The database currently defines structural variation as genomic alterations that involve segments of DNA that are larger than 1kb. Insertions and deletions in the 100bp-1kb range are also annotated. The content of this database represents structural variation identified in healthy control samples. The DGV was developed within the laboratory of Dr. Stephen Scherer and hosted through The Centre for Applied Genomics (TCAG), both based at The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario. An Advisory Board for the database was formed in 2008 and is made up of international researchers, including from the UK, USA and Canada. This database is supported by funding from Genome Canada through the Ontario Genomics Institute, the McLaughlin Centre, the Wellcome Trust and the Canadian Institutes for Health Research.