dkNET comprises two parts:  the website, where you are currently reading this, and the search portal.  The search portal is the heart of dkNET, providing a uniform way of searching for research resources-data, materials, tools-available to help your research.  NIDDK has funded several large consortia who produce and evaluate these resources: NURSA, BCBC, DCC, GUDMAP, T1DB. We've supplemented these with other databases that have general types of research resources of potential interest, e.g., AddGene, the Antibody Registry. The dkNET search portal provides a single interface where you can search across these databases without having to visit each one individually. Once you find what you need, we take you to these sites where you can interact with additional tools and expertise provided. dkNET, then, is essentially a search engine for databases.  

Why can't you use Google or PubMed? You certainly can: try searching for polycystic kidney disease vector in Google, PubMed and dkNET. You will find a lot of information in all of them, but all of them provide a different view into the resources available. dkNET searches within the databases that contain this information, and pre-selects databases that are developed by and trusted by the community (Community Resources).  If, however, the community databases don't have what you need, we also provide additional search across > 200 additional databases (More Resources). And, if you still can't find what you want, we search the literature too, including the full text of open access articles (Literature).  dkNET uses additional features to try to make search more effective. For example, we use a set of vocabulary services to include synonyms and other related terms in your search. Try searching for polycystic kidney disease in the literature tab. You will see results for polycystic kidney disease, Caroli's disease and congenital biliary ectasias. We will be adding more resources and functions to dkNET as we move forward.  So we hope that you will take dkNET for a spin and let us know what you think.