Guidelines for human gene nomenclature were first pub-lished in 1979 [1], when the Human Gene NomenclatureCommittee was first given the authority to approve andimplement human gene names and symbols. Updates of theseguidelines were published in 1987 [2], 1995 [3], and 1997 [4].With the recent publications of the complete human genomesequence there is an estimated total of 26,000–40,000 genes,as suggested by the International Human GenomeSequencing Consortium [5] and Venter