To perform a search, enter a few descriptive words and click the Search button (or press Enter). Search will return only web pages containing all the words in your query. You can refine or narrow your search by adding more words to those you already entered. Your new search will return a smaller subset of the pages found for your original "too-broad" query.
To provide the most accurate results, search does not use "stemming" or support "wildcard" searches. In other words, search looks for exactly the words that you enter in the search box. Searching for "lymph" or "lymph*" will not yield "lymphoblast" or "lymphocyte". If in doubt, try both forms: "lymphoblast" and "lymphocyte" for instance.
By default, search only returns pages that include all of your search terms. There is no need to include "and" between terms. Keep in mind that the order in which the terms are typed will affect the search results. To restrict a search further, just include more terms.
Sometimes what you are searching for has more than one meaning or too many results can be returned. You can exclude a word from your search by putting a minus sign ("-") immediately in front of the term you want to avoid. (Be sure to include a space before the minus sign.)
For example, to find web pages about Alzheimer samples that do not contain the word "female", type: Alzheimer -female
Search for complete phrases by enclosing them in quotation marks. Words enclosed in double quotes ("like this") will appear together in all results exactly as you have entered them. For example, "cystic fibrosis".
Search supports the logical "OR" operator. To retrieve pages that include either word A or word B, use an uppercase OR between terms. For example, to search for all references to your favorite mutations, just type fgfr3 OR atx1.
Search ignores common words and characters such as "where" and "how", as well as certain single digits and single letters, because they tend to slow down your search without improving the results. Search will indicate if a common word has been excluded by displaying details on the results page below the search box.
If a common word is essential to getting the results you want, you can include
it by putting a "+" sign
in front of it. (Be sure to include a space before the plus sign.)
Another method for doing this is conducting a phrase search, which means putting quotation marks around two or more words. Common words in a phrase search (e.g., "where are you") are included in the search.
Searches are NOT case sensitive. All letters, regardless of how you type them, will be understood as lower case. For example, searches for "Ataxia", "ataxia", and "ATAXIA" will all return the same results.