Overview of Bioinformatics Development in Asia Pacific APBioNet Dr TAN Tin Wee Dr Christoph Sensen Professor LUO Jingchu Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Network

Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Survey APEC Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (analogous to early EU) commissioned survey Due to importance of Bioinformatics and Biocomputing to existing biotechnology programs in Asia Pacific –Japan - NIG - DDBJ, Genomenet, KEGG, MAFFIN many others... –Australia - ANGIS, EMBnet node and spread to Malaysia MSC-BIT –China - Peking University second EMBnet node –Singapore - BIC –India - Bioinformatics Center, Pune Relatively not well developed, but rapidly growing

Proposal of Survey Formation of APBioNet Use of Internet Need to improve network performance and infrastructure in the region - ride on APAN advanced network infrastructure Creation of shared bioinformatics resources Develop national resources in APEC economies Technology transfer from advanced countries

Formation of APBioNet Origins and Milestones Early planning Mar 1997 APEC Bioinformatics Survey - APEC TEL 15 Mexico City endorsed Sep 1997 Bioinformatics Survey submitted - APECTEL16 Wellington Jan Inaugural Summit - Pacific Symposium for Biocomputing PSB’98, Hawaii Mar APAN Bioinformatics Working Group Apr APBioNet and APAN-APBioNet Joint Networking Project endorsed by APEC TEL17 June APAN approval of networking project July Second General Meeting - ISMB’98 Montreal

Network Connectivity Program Training Program R&D Applications Development Advanced Network Infrastructure APBioNet APAN Resources Program Conferences Courses Seminars Workshops BioMirrors Databases Computat ional Bio-Grid National Nodes and BioNetworks EMBnet

Achievements Bioinformatics Survey 1997 APEC Endorsement 1997/8 APAN Cooperation First approved project in APAN More than 10 economies involved - Australia, Canada, China, HongKong, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Thailand (soon), USA More than half a dozen co-opted conferences/meetings in Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Russia, Singapore in this year alone. 20 organisations in these countries won APEC TEL designation as a prioritized project and APEC recognition for pioneer project in APII website and mailing lists Supercomputing SC’98 collaborative demonstration(submitted)

IUBio SDSC SSRL NCBI, NIH (soon) CBR NIG NCC GenomeNet MAFFIN Novosi birsk Beijing Univ ANGIS BIC HKBIC MSC-BIT IRRI BRIC Pune

APBioNet rides on APAN Advanced Network and Commodity Internet

Activities Co-opted and APBioNet conferences/ meetings/ symposia - joint APBioNet meetings Training APBioNet General meetings Jan’99 Hawaii PSB and Jun/Jul’98/99 ISMB Bioinformatics Survey Shared Computational and Database Resources Advanced Networking Project with APAN Special Interest Groups and Working Groups Liaison with EMBnet

Challenges ahead Start Bioinformatics and Biocomputing Initiative in each AP country to meet the demands of global bionformatics initiative Advanced Integration of Shared Databases Continue to Build Advanced Networking Infrastructure Increase penetration to individual Biological researchers Create and implement user-friendly collaborative tools for biological researchers Cooperate with other regional groups such as EMBnet

APBioNet and EMBnet Seek assistance from EMBnet –Database mirroring and expertise –Computational facilities –Training Courses Collaborative Projects with EMBnet –Global BioMirrors –Joint Network Connectivity project to link up European research networks with APAN –Joint Research

APBioNet Contacts Dr Christoph Sensen, Canadian Bioinformatics Resource Professor Luo Jingchu, Centre of Bioinformatics, Peking University Dr Tan Tin Wee Director, Bionformatics Centre BIC - Associate Director, Center for Internet Research CIR - Chairman, Asia Pacific Networking Group APNG - Co-Director (User Community) Asia Pacific Advanced Network APAN - Contact, APBioNet (Singapore) - Webmaster, APBioNet HomePage -