Luxembourg, Sep 2001 Pedro Fernandes Inst. Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras, Portugal EMBER A European Multimedia Bioinformatics Educational Resource

Teaching Bioinformatics Bioinformatics is a cross-field between Biology, IT and Computing. The main objective of Bioinformatics is to gain knowledge on Bio-Medical issues. It uses computing methods to process the biological information that emerges from the detailed analysis of molecules (proteins, DNA, RNA), thus inferring on their structure and properties (functions) and helping to answer biological questions. The information flood that occurred in the last 50 years, more recently giving us access to complete genomes, created new challenges. We need, more than ever, that our students, scientists and medical staff become knowledgeable in this area. Practical and interactive learning is needed.

Our community: EMBnet European Molecular Biology Network network of European Bioinformatics providers 30 National Nodes mandated by local government 10 Specialist Nodes user community EMBnet was established in 1988 activities include provision of databases and software via login accounts, user support & training mainly supported by EC funds and Node subscriptions

The Background Still too few university courses available skill shortage in a high-demand area need to educate people of the active communities (high spread of age, motivation, objectives) EMBER was conceived as a collaborative project to draw on skills & expertise of EMBnet teachers exploit EMBnet’s existing pool of teaching materials draw together existing EMBnet partners provide a stand-alone multimedia Bioinformatics course

The EMBER Consortium University of Manchester (Coordinator) Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics - Switzerland University of Nijmegen - The Netherlands South African National Bioinformatics Institute - South Africa European Bioinformatics Institute - UK Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência - Portugal University of Bruxelles - Belgium Institute for Marine Biosciences - Canada Research Institute for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology - Turkey Expert Centre for Taxonomic Identification -The Netherlands

The Gulbenkian Training Program in Bioinformatics Teaches about 120 students/year Runs 2 basic courses and 4 specialized courses Quality control relies on self-assessment Pleasent, interactive environment

EMBER picks-up on Existing on-line Bioinformatics practical An accompanying Textbook

The Project EMBER will collate, evaluate & amalgamate existing materials revise & update these where necessary add new material in line with perceived needs Use the updated and new material to extend the existing introductory text-book extend the existing Web practical (produced professionally) develop a parallel (Web-independent) course on CD-ROM EMBER will be suitable for delivery as part of conventional face-to-face courses or in stand-alone, self-paced settings (e.g., the workplace)

Evaluating Skills Shortage (June 2001) 188 targets (both academic and industrial) were selected according to their involvement in Bioinformatics, Biotechnology, Drug Discovery, etc. They were inquired on what they consider pre-requisite knowledge in order to admit students or employees (20 topics).

Results show that:. Basic Statistics and Information Theory need more emphasis. The curriculum we designed matches the needs quite well. Our choice of advanced topics needs some adjustment. Evaluating Skills Shortage (June 2001)

Molecular Biology Basic concepts, Genomic and Proteomic structure Core Bioinformatics Biological Databases, Sequence Analysis, Functional Genomics Advanced Bioinformatics Molecular Evolution and Phylogeny Protein Structure Prediction The Transcriptome The Proteome Informatics Information Theory Basic Statistics Database Technologies Knowledge Representation Biocomputing The “Ideal” Syllabus