The Virtual Comparative Map (VCMap) tool was originally developed by Dr. Anne Kwitek, Howard Jacob, and Peter Tonellato at the Medical College of Wisconsin as part of the Rat Genome Database. It was designed to explore the conserved synteny between Rat, Mouse and Human. In 2008, through a collaboration between Dr. Jim Reecy (IA State), Dr. Anne Kwitek (University of Iowa), Mary Shimoyama (Rat Genome Database), and Dr. Melinda Dwinell (Medical College of Wisconsin) the tool was updated by Bio::Neos. Genomes and annotations of additional species (Chicken, Cow, and Pig) were added to the database of information accessible to VCMap. This project is funded by USDA grant 2007-04187.