Japanski program za ljudski genom je osnovao KEGG, [[Kjoto]] enciklopediju gena i genoma, [[1995]]. godine<ref name="pmid9287494">{{cite journal| author=Kanehisa M| title=A database for post-genome analysis. | journal=Trends Genet | year= 1997 | volume= 13 | issue= 9 | pages= 375–6 | pmid=9287494 | url=http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/elink.fcgi?dbfrom=pubmed&tool=sumsearch.org/cite&retmode=ref&cmd=prlinks&id=9287494 }}</ref>. Njeni osnivači smatraju KEGG "računarskom reprezentacijom" [[biološki sistem|biološkog sistema]]<ref name="pmid16381885">{{cite journal| authorauthor1=Kanehisa M, |author2=Goto S, |author3=Hattori M, |author4=Aoki-Kinoshita KF, |author5=Itoh M, |author6=Kawashima S et al. | title=From genomics to chemical genomics: new developments in KEGG. | journal=Nucleic Acids Res | year= 2006 | volume= 34 | issue= Database issue | pages= D354-7 | pmid=16381885 | url=http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/elink.fcgi?dbfrom=pubmed&tool=sumsearch.org/cite&retmode=ref&cmd=prlinks&id=16381885 | doi=10.1093/nar/gkj102 | pmc=PMC1347464 }}</ref>. KEGG nalazi primenu u modelovanju i simulacijama, kao i u pregledu i pretraživanju podataka. On je komponenta [[sistemska biologija|sistemsko biološkog]] pristupa.
KEGG sadrži pet glavnih baza podataka:<ref name="pmid14681412">{{cite journal| authorvauthors=Kanehisa M, Goto S, Kawashima S, Okuno Y, Hattori M | title=The KEGG resource for deciphering the genome. | journal=Nucleic Acids Res | year= 2004 | volume= 32 | issue= Database issue | pages= D277-80 | pmid=14681412 | url=http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/elink.fcgi?dbfrom=pubmed&tool=sumsearch.org/cite&retmode=ref&cmd=prlinks&id=14681412 | doi=10.1093/nar/gkh063 | pmc=PMC308797 }}</ref>
