Did you know you can search the entire VarSome knowledge base using plain text? Whether you’re investigating a specific gene, variant, condition, or concept, VarSome’s full text search helps you find relevant content quickly, without needing advanced query syntax.

This feature is part of our broader mission: to make genomic knowledge accessible, transparent, and usable. Clinical and research users rely on VarSome to retrieve critical variant annotations, literature, ACMG/AMP-based classifications, and community-contributed insights. With full text search, you can now search across this entire ecosystem.

What can you search for?

The full text search covers all content indexed in VarSome, including:

• Gene and variant records
• ClinVar and UniProt annotations
• Community annotations and discussions
• External database references (e.g., gnomAD, dbSNP, HGMD Public)
• Relevant publications linked to specific variants or genes

If it’s on VarSome, you can likely find it with a few keywords.

How does it work?

Just type your query into the main search bar. In the example below, we’ve searched for Factor V Leiden. 

At the top of the page (highlighted in red), you’ll find a summary of the information in our knowledge base relating to your query. You can click the relevant result category to help narrow down the list.

From here, you can also click the Search on Google button (highlighted in purple) to extend your search beyond VarSome. 

When you run a search, your results are ranked by relevance. For example, if you’re looking for a paper, this includes the words found, how often an article has been referenced in VarSome's knowledge base, and the impact factor of the publishing journal.

Some Tips

• You can narrow the result type by starting your query with one of the following keywords: “gene”, “disease”, “phenotype”, “article”, “clinvar”, or “uniprot”.
• Adding quotes (“...”) around a word tells the search engine to discard any entries that don’t contain exactly that word. This helps narrow a search if there are too many results.

Why use Full Text Search?

• Speed: Avoid digging through tabs and surface the most relevant entries fast.
• Flexibility: Ask questions the way you think about them, not how a database expects.
• Depth: Access community notes, research evidence, and structured annotations in one place. 

Full text search is designed to save you time and help you get straight to the information that matters, whether you’re checking a classification, exploring an edge case, or reviewing published evidence. It’s one more way VarSome supports efficient, informed decision-making across clinical and research workflows.

If you have any feedback, suggestions, or questions, please feel free to reach out to us at newsletter@varsome.com!