Source: Newsquest, 27 February 2004 via BioSciences NEWS

AgResearch, the Government's biggest science company, has set up a centre to support the use of computers in biotechnology, medical and ecological research.

The official launch today of the Bioinformatics Institute, funded jointly by Agresearch and Auckland University, is expected to boost New Zealand research. The institute has been sited in the science faculty at the university and will cover the convergence of computer science with sectors such as medicine, biotechnology, genome research and biodiversity.

The inter-disciplinary field focuses on collaboration between biologists, computer scientists, mathematicians and statisticians.

Bioinformatics arose from the "number crunching" needed for the human genome project, and involves development and use of powerful computer tools and biological sciences in the capture, storage and analyse of vast amounts of biological data.

Agresearch itself has its own world-class bioinformatics group -- initially established to process, annotate and analyse gene sequence data Agresearch was accessing, to make it into useful, easily accessible information for people such as geneticists and molecular biologists.

Auckland University's mathematics faculty was two years ago given $5 million by the Government for application of high-level mathematical techniques to bioengineering, bioinformatics, medical statistics, optimisation and risk assessment, to enhance decision making in complex systems .

Biofinformatics Institute director Allen Rodrigo said bioinformatics was a relatively new field but was growing in global importance alongside the swift development of biotechnology.

"Good quality information is absolutely critical to research of every kind, but this is particularly true in the area of biotechnology," says Professor Rodrigo.

"The aim of bioinformatics is to use computer technology to extract information from biomolecular and genetic data and turn that information into knowledge to help answer questions in biology, biotechnology and medicine." "Today's science is undertaken as much on the computer as it is in the laboratory, and it's vital that biologists have an understanding of computer science, and for computer scientists to have a knowledge of biology, he said. "One of the key aims of the Bioinformatics Institute is to promote and stimulate this collaboration and discussion".

Agresearch chief information officer Phillip Lindsay said the institute would not only develop the field in New Zealand, but most importantly, develop the expertise of people with specific skills in this area.

"Bioinformatics is a vital part of Agresearch's life sciences research and until now there has been a shortage of graduates trained in this area," he said. The new institute would help produce graduates with the right skills.

Dr Lindsay said the institute also provided an opportunity for the two partners to combine their different strengths and develop new capabilities.

The Bioinformatics Institute has nine researchers, including a director, lecturer and several postgraduate fellows, while a number of undergraduate students were studying in this area. Agresearch scientists would also be based at the institute periodically.

Research already underway includes:

• development of computational models to study the consequences of genetic engineering;

• genetics and epidemiology of feline immunodeficiency virus which causes a form of AIDS in domestic cats;

• development of methods to study the evolution of rapidly evolving pathogens like HIV and Influenza;

• characterisation and sequencing of the genome of an environmentally relevant bacterium;

• the development of a website for the identification of unknown forensic samples from whales and dolphins.

Source: Newsquest, 27 February 2004