ASIA PACIFIC BIOINFORMATICS NETWORK



www.apbionet.org/

Contact: Dr Tan Tin Wee, Founding Convenor, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Geographical area included: Asia Pacific

Goal: Fostering the Growth of Bioinformatics and allied disciplines in the Asia Pacific region

Structure: Dr S Subbiah (President)
Dr Shoba Ranganathan (Vice President)
Dr Tan Tin Wee (Secretariat)

Founded: 1998

Membership: APBioNet h as more than 20 organizational and 300 individual members from over 12 countries in the region, and members include those from industry, academia, research, government, investors and international organizations. Members join by online registration, and receive a wide range of services and benefits including APBioNet fellowships, opportunities to participate in APBioNet endorsed events such as InCoB (International Conference on Bioinformatics) and APBC (Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Conference).

Information infrastructure: Mailing list
www.apbionet.org/list.shtml

Activities planned and/or past:APBioNet has coordinated or co-organized more than 20 international and national meetings in cooperation with members in different economies. InCoB (International Conference on Bioinformatics) will be held in 2004 by Allen Rodrigo in Auckland, and APBC (Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Conference) will be held in 2004 coordinated by Phoebe Chen, also in Auckland. APBioNet also provides various services such as BioMirror project with APAN (Asia Pacific Advanced Network) as well as APBioBox (a suite of shrink-wrapped software) a project funded by IDRC Canada. We are also active in ASEAN nations, particularly acting as liaison for the ASEAN Committee on Science and Technology's Subcommittee on Biotechnology.

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ASSOCIATION FOR MEDICAL AND BIO INFORMATICS SINGAPORE


www.ambis.org.sg

Contact(s): (name(s) and email address(es))
Quek Hui Nar (President): This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Olivo Miotto (Vice-President): This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Geographical area included: Singapore

Goal/Mission:
- Provide a forum of discussion for bioinformatics and medical informatics
- Promote collaboration and exchange among Singapore bioinformatics and medical informatics practitioners through the organisation of conferences, meetings, seminars, workshops, symposia every year
- Stimulate collaboration between practitioners and scientists of different backgrounds
- Provide training in medical and bioinformatics

Leadership:
(names of board members and/or officers/steering committee)
President: Quek Hui Nar
Vice-President: Olivo Miotto
Secretary: Dr Walter Lim
Treasurer: Suryani Lukman
Committee Member: Christopher J.O. Baker
Committee Member: Dr Tan Yung Ming
Advisory Board Member: A/Prof Tan Tin Wee
Advisory Board Member: Prof Lun Kwok Chan

Year founded and brief history (1-3 sentences) of how the group was formed:
The predecessor organisation of AMBIS was AIMS, founded in 1985, originally with a scope limited to health informatics. With the advent of Bioinformatics, and to regularise the fact that many of its members are bioinformatics practitioners, the association has succeeded in changing its constitution and having it approved and ratified by the Registrar of Societies, Singapore this year, i.e. 2003. Activities proposed or carried out:

The group plans to continue organising meetings that include both medical and bioinformatics, as well as separate meetings focussed on either medical informatics or bioinformatics and computational biology. Past activities included a bioinformatics symposium, an annual lecture by expert speakers in bioinformatics and/or medical informatics. We have sponsored members to attend a number of meetings in medical informatics and bioinformatics and will continue to do so, via our modest travel fellowship scheme.

The AMBIS website is now co-hosted with the APBioNet website, and in future, we anticipate to collaborate with APBioNet to spearhead new initiatives such as providing a testbed for the APBioBox software package (including the Globus Grid toolkit) for Linux platforms, in an easily installable and configurable form for developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region, collaborate with Sun Microsystems to launch the Sun BioBox for Solaris (which includes the Sun Grid Engine) and work closely with the bioinformatics research groups in Singapore.

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BIOINFORMATICS IN INDIA


www.bioinformatics-india.com

Contact: Ashwin Naik This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Leadership: Dr. Ashwin Naik

History: Bioinformatics-india.com was founded in March 2000, when interest in bioinformatics was surging throughout the world. Indian bioinformatics professionals needed a single platform to interact, share ideas and discuss issues and developments related to bioinformatics.

Membership size and services: 2000+ members, regular e-updates, personalised
space and news about bioinformatics, jobs/resume databaseActivities planned and/or past: National Bioinformatics Conference in July 2004.
Goal: To Provide a Hub for Bioinformatics Professionals of Indian Origin

Geographical area included: India

Mailing Address: 14120 Castle Blvd #101, Silverspring, MD 20904, USA

Structure & Activities: Bioinformatics in India has no official or elected leadership. It is run as a virtual group, with all activites including discussions and exchange of ideas online. Users can signup for free through the online registration form.

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INBIOS-BIOINFORMATICS SOCIETY OF INDIA


www.inbios.org

Contacts: Dr. Krishna S. Deshpande, Secretary, Bioinformatics Society of India, Director, Institute of Bioinformatics, Discoverer 7th Floor, International Tech Park Ltd. Whitefield Road, Bangalore - 560 066, INDIA, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Dr. Akhilesh Pandey (President) ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
Mr. Ashwin Sivakumar (Founder and Group Coordinator) ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
Phone: (+91) 80-8416140, Fax: (+91) 80-8416132

Goals: Bioinformatics Society of India, or Inbios, is a non-profit society dedicated to promoting and creating excellence in the emerging field of bioinformatics in India.This society is aimed at making Bioinformatics a long term success in India. The current growing interests and trends will have serious repercussions in the years to come. This society is basically aimed at being a bridge between the Educational and Corporate sector. It will strive towards catering the needs of the aspiring learners of this field by creating a genuine awareness and to attain perfection to set a benchmark in Bioinformatics. Right now the focus for India should be on building a stable building block in Bioinformatics so that we are considered a major research hub for this field in the near future. Inbios runs as an informal and voluntary group and thus does not make any monetary profits from the activities carried out.

Membership: We invite both International and Indian Bioinformatics community alike to be a part of the Society and it is an effective way for both group learning and to be informed about Indian Bioinformatics scenario. There is a prospective members' mailing list at:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/inbios

Applications will be screened for membership to the Society (Individual-student/otherwise, academic, corporate). We expect inspired contributions and participance from students and individuals since it is a completely Voluntary Society. Membership will be screened regularly on this basis.

Structure: President (elected yearly from among the existing board by planning committee and board with input from chapters and Society members), Secretary (elected by President, Planning Committee and Society members), Founder, Co-founder and founding members become a part of the planning committee, Board members are elected every year by planning committee after input from chapters, Planning Committee are Inbios patrons, whose suggestions and ideas will be discussed at the level of board and will be considered and implemented by the president. There will be a chief volunteer amongst this committee who finally takes a discussed issue to the president. They are permanent and additive. A planning committee member can get elected in the Board and vice-a-versa. Treasury is either from the planning committee or board, and they are elected by the Society members. In addition there are Mediators elected yearly by the president and Chapter Representatives appointed yearly by the Planning Committee, President and mediators.
Dr. Akhilesh Pandey (Institute of Bioinformatics, Bangalore) is the current President and Dr. Krishna Deshpandey is the Secretary.

Inbios- Bioinformatics Society of India has now almost been restructured. We are a registered Society committed towards development of the field in India and hope to be a bridge between the Academic and Corporate sectors and moreover between the International and Indian Bioinformatics. International Chapters are in the form of US and European Chapters. Regional Chapters which are either existent or being introduced are Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chandigarh and Pune. Calcutta is being considered. We identify regional chapters based on priority areas for this field. People from other regions may opt/contact the nearest chapter. Each chapter has an assigned Mediator and separate page within our website.

Activities: * Newsletters * Biomeet (A live web discussion with an Invited Guest on a Bioinformatics related topic) * Conferences and Workshops * Chapter meetings * Busy discussion forum and mailing list: (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/inbios/)

We have introduced new concepts like the upcoming newsletter (Bioinformatica), virtual journal club (Vijoc) and specialist talks by selected Inbiosians (italk). Upcoming Biomeet will be on "Inbios and its international presence". Further details on time and date will be up shortly (website and prospective members' mailing list). We expect prospective members to participate in such activities not only because they are unique opportunity to discuss issues and meet the Bioinformatics community but also because memberships are reviewed regularly based on reasonable participation and contributions to our activities. Past activities include Brainstorm 2003 - A major event planned by the INBIOS team, the event had quality talks by the Industry and Academia invitees and had a moderated discussion forum which also involved participation from over 200 people; Bioinformatics Threshold: 2002 - The first INBIOS event having a media presence. It had more than 150 participants. It comprised of quality talks from Academia and Industry people along with an hands-on workshop on Bioinformatics methodologies; Primer Workshop in Bioinformatics (PWIB) 2002 - PWIB happens to be the first event to be hosted by INBIOS. It attracted more than 50 participants.

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JAPANESE SOCIETY FOR BIOINFORMATICS


URL: www.jsbi.org/

Contact:
Name : Ms. Asako Suzuki (JSBi Officer)
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Phone: +81-3-5793-4431
Fax : +81-3-5793-4432

Geographical area included: Japan

Goal/Mission:
The purpose of JSBi is to perform research in bioinformatics, conduct investigations into its techniques, and exchange research and knowledge in the field in order to promote these and related activities, as well as contribute to the field's educational base.

Leadership:
President: Osamu Gotoh (April 2009 - March 2010)(term: 1year)
Vice President: Hideo Matsuda (April 2009 - March 2010)(term: 1 year)

Board of Directors (20 members, term: 2 years)

Term 2008/04/01 - 2010/03/31
Yutaka Akiyama (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
Masanori Arita (University of Tokyo)
Yukihiro Eguchi (GNI Ltd.)
Minoru Kanehisa (Kyoto University)
Kengo Kinoshita (University of Tokyo)
Yasubumi Sakakibara (Keio University)
Tsuyoshi Shirai (Nagahama Institute of BioScience and Technology)
Hiroyuki Toh (Kyushu University)
Chie Motono (Computational Biology Research Center)
Tetsushi Yada (Kyoto University)

Term 2009/04/01 - 2011/03/31
Yasushi Okuno (Kyoto University)
Toshiyuki Okumura (Mitsui Knowledge Industry Co., Ltd.)
Shigehiko Kanaya (Nara Institute of Science and Technology)
Kiyoko Kinoshita (Soka University)
Akinori Sarai (Kyushu Institute of Technology)
Mikita Suyama (Kyoto University)
Toshihisa Takagi (Database Center for Life Science)
Kentaro Tomii (Computational Biology Research Cente)
Yasukazu Nakamura (National Institue of Genetics/Kazusa DNA Research Institute)
Tamotsu Noguchi (Computational Biology Research Center)

Method of electing or selecting leader(s):
The members of Board of Directors are elected by the members of JSBi.
The President is elected by the members of Board of Directors.
The Vice President is appointed by the president.

History:
JSBi was founded on 11 December, 1999. Minoru Kanehisa inaugurated as the first president of JSBi. JSBi was mainly formed by the members involved with the Genome Informatics Project.

Membership size and benefits:
JSBi currently has 550 individual members and 26 corporate members There is a dues structure which entitles members to the following benefits:
Reduced registration fee at the International Conference on Genome Informatics (GIW) 
Free admission to JSBi SIG meetings Right to attend JSBi Summer School 
Right to use the JSBi mailing list for academic and commercial annoucements             
Student travel support for the GIW, ISMB, PSB, and RECOMB conferences

Activities planned and/or past:
Conferences The International Conference on Genome Informatics
(Annual meeting:http://giw.ims.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ )

Publications:
Genome Informatics Series News Letters (2 issues per year)
Encycropedia of Bioinformatics (scheduled to be published in 2005)

Educational Activities:
JSBi Summer School (2003 - 2007, 2009 - )
Bioinformatics Curriculum Committee:
- The proposal for Bioinformatics Education Curriculum was made in 2002.
- The Bioinformatics Education Curriculum is under revision since 2004.
Special Interest Group on Systems Biology (2003 - )
Special Interest Group on Biological Information Network (2003 - )
Special Interest Group on Pharma Informatics (2004 - )
Special Interest Group on Ontology (2005 - ) 
Special Interest Group on Agribioinformatics (2008 - )

International Collaboration:
The First Symposium on Associations of Asian Societies for Bioinformatics (AASBi), Pacifico Yokohama, Japan, December 13, 2003. JSBi is a member of AASBi. Satoru Miyano was elected as the first president of AASBi for the year 2004.

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KOREAN SOCIETY FOR BIOINFORMATICS (KSBI)


www.ksbi.org

Contact: Cheolmin Kim, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor,
Laboratory of Genomic Medicine Department of Biochemistry,
College of Medicine, Pusan National University, #10 Amidong-1-ga,
Seogu, Busan, 602-739, Korea
Tel 82-51-240-7725 (O), 82-51-242-4828 (L), Fax 82-51-248-1118,
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

S. June O, Ph.D. Head, Bioinformatics team / BRIC, TEL: +82-2-880-5890 / FAX: +82-2-883-9120,
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Su Jung Kim, Researcher, Biological Research Information Center (BRIC) TEL: 82-54-279-8196, Fax: 82-54-279-5540

Geographical area included: Korea

Goal/mission:

• Promotion of bioinformatics research and development in Korea
• Sponsoring bioinformatics-related academic events such as symposia, workshops, discussion forums, etc in Korea
• Participation in basic and advanced bioinformatics education in Korea
• Supporting technological and industrial development in the area of bioinformatics in Korea

Leadership: President: Dr. Hong Gil Nam; Vice President: Kwang H. Lee; Board of Directors & Committees

Year founded and brief history: In Oct., 1998, a group of experts in the areas of life science and bioinformatics recognizing the importance of bioinformatics in the coming decades founded KSBI. Since then, experts from non-biology areas such as computer science, mathematics and so on joined it.

Membership size and services: Membership: 1050 Regular Members as of July, 2003; Services: Daily industrial news, VOD, Forum etc,.

Activities planned and/or past: 1998. 10: KSBI Founded and the first president, Mun Hee Han, 1998. 11: Foundation memorial seminar, 1999. 2: DNA chip committee initiated, 1999. 10: Workshop, 2000. 2: Workshop, 2000. 11: The 1st International Symposium, 2000. 11: The second president, Sam Myo Kim, 2001. 2: New web site opened (www.ksbi.org), 2001. 3: Newsletter service, 2001. 6: 1st Workshop, 2001. 8: The 2nd International Symposium, 2001. 10: 2nd Workshop, 2001. 11: Incorporated association supported by Korean Ministry of Commerce, 2002. 1. 11: Board meeting, 2002. 2. 8: 2002 the 1st workshop, 2002. 3. 6: Board member meeting, 2002. 6. 27: 2002the 2nd workshop, 2002. 11.15-16: 2002 KSBI annual meeting, 2002. 11.15: The third president, Hong Gil Nam, 2003. 1. 10: 2003 Board member meeting, 2003. 2 : 2003 the 1st workshop, 2003. 5. 3 : 2003 the 2nd workshop, 2003. 7: 2003 the 3rd workshop, 2003. 8: 2004 the 4th workshop

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BIOINFORMATICS SOCIETY TAIWAN

http://dblab8.csie.ncu.edu.tw/ (in Chinese)

Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Goals: to promote the interaction of biologists and nonbiologist; to promote bioinformatics in Taiwan

Structure:

Chairman: Cheng-Yen Kao
Standing board members: Ueng-Cheng Yang, Chao Hsiung
Regular board members: 8
Treasure monitoring committee
Standing member: Johnsee Lee
Regular member: 2

Secretary: Jorng-Tzong Horng
Method of election: At annual meeting (If there are not sufficient members present in the meeting, mail-election is also acceptable.)

Method of renewal: Every other year. The chairman can at most be elected twice in series. The board members does not have any restriction.

Geographical area included: Taiwan

Information infrastructure: electronic bulletin boards
http://binfo.ym.edu.tw/idg/ (English & Chinese mixed)
http://domino.tmu.edu.tw/bioinfo.nsf/ (English & Chinese mixed)

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