Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics

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Ron Appel, the current director of the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics.
Ron Appel, the current director of the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics.

The Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB) is an academic not-for-profit foundation established on March 30, 1998 whose mission is to promote research, develop databanks and computer technologies, and be involved with teaching and service activities in the field of bioinformatics in Switzerland with international collaborations. The current research groups in the SIB are currently located in Geneva, Lausanne, Basel and Zürich.

It maintains several biological databases, including Swiss-Prot. The ExPASy server, mirrored in several countries worldwide, is dedicated to the analysis of protein sequences and structures as well as 2-D PAGE.

The institute was originally created to provide a framework for stable long-term funding for both the Swiss-Prot database and the Swiss EMBnet node. Swiss-Prot in particular went through a major funding crisis in 1996.[1], which led the leaders of the five research groups active in bioinformatics in Geneva and Lausanne, Ron Appel, Amos Bairoch, Philipp Bucher, Victor Jongeneel and Manuel Peitsch to propose the creation of the SIB.[2] After its creation, the institute could then apply for funding under a Swiss law that allows the government to fund up to 50% of expenses of vital research and teaching infrastructures.[3]

The first director of the institute was Victor Jongeneel, who was followed between 2001 and September 2007 by Ernest Feytmans. Since 1 October 2007, the institute is led by Ron Appel, one of its founding members.[4][5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ SWISS-PROT funding crisis of 1996, on the website of the Swiss-Prot database. Last accessed 15 October 2007.
  2. ^ Bairoch Amos (2000). "Serendipity in bioinformatics, the tribulations of a Swiss bioinformatician through exciting times!". Bioinformatics 16: 48-64. doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/16.1.48. PMID 10812477.  — a historical account by Bairoch.
  3. ^ Bundesgesetz über die Forschung (FG) / Loi fédérale sur la recherche (LR) of 1983-10-07, SR/RS 420.1 (D·F·I), art. 16 (D·F·I), al. 3b,c.
  4. ^ Management, on the web site of the institute
  5. ^ "Announcement: Prof. Ron D. Appel is appointed as new Director of the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics." Proteomics, 7, 2007. p. 4413.

[edit] External links

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