ISCB Affiliated Groups
| EUROPE and MIDDLE EAST |
Contact: Matteo Pallocca (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Bioinformatics Italian Society secretary
c/o Segreteria
Fondazione Adriano Buzzati-Traverso
Viale del Policlinico 131
00161 ROMA
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Geographical area included: Italy, but open to Italian researchers abroad
Leadership Structure: • President - Raffaele A CALOGERO
• Treasurer - Alessandro Cestaro
• Secretary - Matteo Pallocca
Board Members
• Marco Cannataro
• Rosalba GIUGNO
Goals: About:
The Italian Society of Bioinformatics BITS was formed in 2003 as an evolution of BioComp, a group coordinating research and education activities in bioinformatics in Italy since 1999. In 2015, BITS has ca. 300 members. The society organizes an Annual Meeting, supports young researchers presenting at International conferences by awarding Travel Grants, offers its patronage for scientific events of the international level organized by its members, and provides news on various matters, including education and job, through its website.
Goals. The main objective of the BITS association regards the study and diffusion of Bioinformatics in the academic environment in the research approach and also in the application and technological environments. Among the aims of BITS, there is the promotion and support of Bioinformatics teaching in the University and in any other appropriate location, that is the main activity conducted by Training and Teaching BITS Group. The aims of the Association are mainly disclosed through the web page www.bioinformatics.it, and during the Conferences organized annually by the Association.
Vision:
The BITS is a non-profit scientific association, it was founded on June, 19th 2003 to bring together researchers interested in Bioinformatics. Bioinformatics is a multidisciplinary science that addresses the study of biological problems at the molecular and cellular levels using computational algorithms and models.
Activities:
Since 2003, the BITS Society organized the Annual Meeting of the Bioinformatics Italian Society. During the meeting, four/five of the international keynote speakers turn the conference into a memorable experience for all of its participants. Moreover, several satellite events are proposed usually they will be held before or after the main event. The annual meeting is a well-balanced mix of different oral communications and posters from different areas of bioinformatics, with plenty of opportunities to learn about discussion scientific progress.
Since 2018, have been established the BITS groups leading to follow the national and international initiatives split into different areas of interest. Four groups are active: Portal and Research projects, Training & Teaching, young BITS, and Clinical Bioinformatics. For each BITS group, a social platform was created and all BITS members are free to subscribe.
In particular, the Training & Teaching group proposed to university professors a survey aimed at portraying the current situation of bioinformatics courses within undergraduate curricula in Italy. The paper is published in Plos Computational Biology journal (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010846)
During 2022 BITS has installed several collaborations with national and international research groups:
1) The BITS president is involved in the scientific board of the nation consortium of computer science across all Italian universities.
2) The BITS president was invited to the annual meeting of Italian Society of life science.
3) The BITS secretary was invited to present BITS at the medical informatics society annual meetings
4) Anna Marabotti was invited in the "Protein structure models, biophysical data and high-performance computing for drug design" school.
Activities and programs that demonstrate the advancement of bioinformatics and computational biology:
Full articles presented in the BITS2022 has been published in JBI (Journal of Biomedical Informatics) into a special issue dedicated to the papers that make a "conceptual contribution to the field, typically by describing an innovation in methodology or technique or by discussing substantive generalizable lessons that have been learned in the context of an informatics project".
The 2023 edition was held in Bari 21-23 June. The event will took place at the Hotel Excelsior Bari, Via Giulio Petroni, 15, 70124 Bari (IT). 2024 edition will be in Trento from 12 to 14 June 2024.
Last Updated September 22, 2023
Contact: Erik Bongcam-Rudloff,
1) Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences,
750 24 Uppsala, Sweden
2) MolecularGeneticsandBioinformaticsatHGEN-SLU
POST:
P O Box 7023 75007 Uppsala Sweden
Visiting address:
Gerda Nilssons väg 2 756 51 Uppsala, Sweden
E-mail: Erik.Bongcam(at)hgen(dot)slu(dot)se Telephone: +46- (0)18-67 21 21
Fax: +46- (0) 18-67 28 48
Mobile: +46-(0)72-5355587
Geographical area included: Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the Americas
Leadership Structure: EMBnet is legal foundation (a Stichting), registered in The Netherlands and sustained through membership (open both to organisations and to individuals). It is managed by a 4-member Executive Board, assisted by the outgoing Chair and Treasurer. One voting representative from each member organisation sits on the full EMBnet Board.
Interim Executive Board members
• Prof. Erik Bongcam-Rudloff (SE) - Chairman, since 2015
• Dr. Domenica D'Elia (IT) - Secretary, since 2015
• Dr. Emiliano Barreto (CO) - Treasurer, since 2015
• Dr. Lubos Klucar (SK) - Member, since 2015
• Prof. Teresa K Attwood (UK) - Outgoing Chair (Chair, 2009-2015)
• Dr. Etienne de Villiers (KE) - Outgoing Treasurer (Treasurer, 2009-2015)
Activities focus around three main themes:
• Education and Training
• Technical Management
• Publicity and Public Relations
Goals:
The main goal of EMBnet is to support the life science community through its global network of bioinformaticians, offering knowledge and expertise ranging from computational biology research, through bioinformatics services to education and training.
Brief history:
EMBnet was founded in 1988 to address the problem of distributing the EMBL Data Library and its associated computational tools. The solution was to create an infrastructure consisting of distributed European Nodes, each serving its own local research community.
Many countries from Asia, Africa and America have since joined EMBnet, effectively expanding its boundaries beyond European frontiers. Over the years, the membership model has also evolved, such that today, any organisation with interests in bioinformatics research, services and education may join (i.e., a national mandate is no longer required), and individuals may join too.
EMBnet maintains fruitful cooperations with the Iberoamerican Society for Bioinformatics (SoIBio), the Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Network (APBioNet), the African Society for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (ASBCB) and the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB).
Activities:
EMBnet organises yearly workshops and/or conferences in conjunction with its Annual General Meeting (AGM). In addition, regular Virtual General Meetings (VGM) are held, to encourage wider participation in EMBnet’s work.
In September 2008, to celebrate its 20th anniversary, EMBnet organised an international conference on bioinformatics and computational biology (www.embnet.org/EMBnet20thAnniversary) alongside its AGM. This meeting attracted 128 participants from Africa, America, Asia, Australia and Europe, and the proceedings were published in a BMC Bioinformatics Conference supplement (www.biomedcentral.com/bmcbioinformatics/10?issue=S6).
In 2009, EMBnet organised an International Conference on Bioinformatics for High Throughput Technologies at the Interface of Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, in cooperation with SoIBio (formerly RIBio) in Cancun. This was the first time EMBnet's AGM took place outside Europe, bringing together bioinformaticians from all over the world and representatives of other major bioinformatics societies.
In 2012, EMBnet called together representatives of nine international and national bioinformatics, biocuration, biocomputing and computational biology societies and networks to discuss how to harmonise bioinformatics education and training worldwide. The outcome of this pivotal meeting in Uppsala, was an agreement to establish a Global Organisation for Bioinformatics Learning, Education and Training – GOBLET (www.mygoblet.org). GOBLET has grown from strength to strength, and had its first joint meeting with ISCB during ISMB 2013 in Berlin (www.mygoblet.org/about-us/goblet-events/iscbgoblet-meeting), its first exhibitor booth at ISMB 2015 in Dublin.
ISCB is a key member of GOBLET, and together these organisations cooperate through the Community of Special Interest (CoSI) in Computational Biology Education (CoBE) (http://cosi.iscb.org/wiki/CoBE:Home).
During its 2015 AGM in Oeiras, Portugal, EMBnet agreed to strengthen its relationship with GOBLET by making a substantial ‘life-time’ donation.
Last Updated July 14, 2023
Contact: Prof. Dr. Ina Koch
Mailing address:
Fachgruppe Bioinformatik
c/o DECHEMA eV
Dr. Karsten Schürrle
Theodor-Heuss-Allee 25
60486 Frankfurt am Main
Germany
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Geographical area included: Europe, Germany
Leadership Structure: • Prof. Dr. Ina Koch (U Frankfurt), Speaker of the board
• Prof. Dr. Caroline Friedel (LMU Munich), Vice speaker of the board
• Prof. Dr. Sven Rahmann (U of Duisburg Essen and TU Dortmund ), Vice speaker of the board
• + 6 board members, see
www.bioinformatik.de/fachgruppe-3/beirat.html
Goals: Vision:
Bioinformatics and computational biology will evolve towards a key technology in life science research. FaBI will actively accompany this process fostering bioinformatics research in all areas of life science and medical research.
Mission:
• Establishing a strong network among bioinformaticians, computer and life science researchers interested in computational biology
• Representing the interests of bioinformatics research in Germany
Objectives:
• Support scientific networking by conferences and meetings related to bioinformatics
• Providing current information on bioinformatics in Germany for bioinformaticians as well as the society in general (www.bioinformatik.de)
• Establishing a strong network among bioinformaticians, computer and life science researchers interested in computational biology
• Representing the interests of bioinformatics research in Germany
Research focus:
Research, development and application of computer-based methods used to answer biomolecular and biomedical research questions with a focus on models and algorithms for data on the molecular and cell-biological level, for example on:
• genomes and genes
• gene and protein expression and -regulation,
• metabolic and regulatory pathways and networks,
• structures of biomacromolecules, esp. DNA, RNA and proteins,
• molecular interactions between biomacromolecules and between biomacromolecules and other substances like substrates, transmitters, neurotransmitters and inhibitors as well as
• molecular characterization of ecological systems.
History
In September 2014 German academic societies from computer and life sciences founded the Fachgruppe Bioinformatik (FaBI) as their common bioinformatics section. The founding societies are GI - German Informatics Society, DECHEMA - Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, GBM - Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and GDCh - German Chemical Society. The GMDS - German Society for Medical Informatics, Biometry, and Epidemiology joined in 2015. VAAM Vereinigung für Allgemeine und Angewandte Mikrobiologie joined in 2019.
FaBI as a non-profit organisation is open to all members of the founding societies without any fees.
Activities:
The board (plus local organizer) serves as organizing committee of the annual German Conference on Bioinformatics GCB, a conference series which started in 1986. GCB 2021 was a virtual conference with 161 participants. GCB 2022 (www.gcb2022.de) will take place in Halle from 6-8 September
The FaBI dissertation prize (EUR 1000) is awarded annually on occasion of GCB. Awardee in 2021 was Torsten Gross (Berlin) for 'Network inference from perturbation data:
robustness , identifiability and experimental design'
The FaBI homepage www.bioinformatik.de is the gateway to bioinformatics in Germany. It provides an overview of bioinformatics research, bioinformatics education, current events, and job offers for bioinformaticians.
Activities and programs that demonstrate the advancement of bioinformatics and computational biology:
Annual German Conference on Bioinformatics GCB
Annual FaBI dissertation prize
Tutorial workshops prior to GCB
Last Updated January 06, 2023
Contact: Christos Ouzounis
CPERI-CERTH
Thessalonica 57001 Greece
voice: +302310498473
email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
CSD-AUTH
Thessalonica 54124 Greece
voice: +302310998412
email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Geographical area included: Greece and Cyprus
Leadership Structure: 2019-2022
Chair: Ilias Kappas
Deputy Chair: Stella Tamana
Secretary: Anastasia Chasapi
Treasurer: Christos Karapiperis
Member: Anastasios Chanalaris
Member: Anastasia Gioti
Member: Eleftherios Panteris
Deputy Member: Ilias Lagkouvardos
Deputy Member: Joan Carles Pons Mayol
Goals
‣Promotes computational biology & related disciplines.
‣Supports the research potential and infrastructure related to computational biology.
‣Represents Greece & Cyprus in international scientific organizations, conferences, committees & training activities related
to computational biology.
‣Undertakes projects in the field of computational biology in collaboration with other partner organizations.
‣Organizes national & international conferences, seminars, lectures & talks subjects related to computational biology.
‣Collaborates with counterparts in other countries, for enhancing research & training in computational biology.
‣Communicates results to decision makers & the public regarding the field, its applications and potential.
‣Explores funding opportunities for research programs in computational biology.
‣Issues annals, scientific journals, conference proceedings or other printed material, where scientific activities of its members can be published.
Series of conferences:
http://hbio.info/conferences-when/
(brief history)
Activities:
http://hbio.info/conferences-when/
note the cancellation of the series due to the pandemic.
online event took place in 2021
https://hbio.info/2021/06/03/hbioinfo-bridge-2020-21-registered/
as a bridge event between 2020 and the next in-person conference that is scheduled for 2023 (not announced yet)
Activities and programs that demonstrate the advancement of bioinformatics and computational biology:
http://hbio2020.hbio.info/
(under consideration due to the coronavirus situation)
Last Updated November 08, 2022
Contact: Dr. Christoforos Nikolaou,
Researcher B', BSRC "Alexander Fleming"
tel: +30 210 9656319 (ext 133)
email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Mailing address:
Computational Genomics Group
BSRC "Alexander Fleming"
16672, Athens
Greece
Geographical area included: Greece and Cyprus
Leadership Structure: Board of Directors: Pantelis G. Bagos (Director), Antonis Giannakakis (Deputy Director), Christoforos Nikolaou (Secretary), Artemis Hadjigeorgiou (Treasurer), Giorgos Tsaousis (member)
Goals: The HSCBB was initially conceived as a trans-national society, representing two countries that share the same language and history, Cyprus and Greece. The first, unofficial meeting was held in Heraklion in 2006, followed by Athens in 2007 and Thessalonica in 2008. After the formal incorporation of the Society in 2008 representing the Greek bioinformatics community and its ‘inaugural’, fourth scientific conference in Athens during 2009, the HSCBB continued to organize the conference series and formulated plans to extend its scope with Cyprus as a society chapter, with the full support of the University of Cyprus and its Bioinformatics Research Laboratory. The HSCBB aspires to provide the necessary exposure of graduate students to new developments, expand its horizons towards the international community, promote the development of the field and formulate a solid agenda for the future, all consistent with its primary goals.
Activities:
The HSCBB has successfully organized several conferences on computational biology and bioinformatics for Greece and Cyprus during the recent past, starting in 2006.
The conferences were held at:
2006: Foundation for Research & Technology - Hellas, Heraklion
2007: Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, Athens
2008: Centre for Research & Technology Hellas, Thessalonica
2009: National Hellenic Research Foundation, Athens
2010: Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis
2011: University of Patras / Foundation for Research & Technology - Hellas, Patras
2012: Foundation for Research & Technology - Hellas / Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Heraklion
2013: University of Thessaly, Lamia
2014: Agricultural University of Athens, Athens
2015: Biomedical Research Foundation, Academy of Athens, Athens
2016: Agricultural University of Athens, Athens
2017: Hellenic Pasteur Institute, Athens
2018: Stavros Niarchos Cultural Center, Athens (jointly with ECCB 2018)
2019: University of Patras, Greece
2020: No meeting was held due to the Covid-19 pandemic
2021: Hellenic Pasteur Institute, Athens, Greece
2022: Ramada Hotel, Alexandroupolis, Greece
The HSCBB has also organized six training workshops attached to the last five conferences, and co-organized and cosponsored the IEEE 12th International Conference on BioInformatics & BioEngineering (BIBE2012) in Cyprus recently.
Typical number of participants: ~100 / year.
Activities and programs that demonstrate the advancement of bioinformatics and computational biology:
HSCCB held a very successful in-person meeting in Alexandroupoli in late October 2022. We had more than 100 participants from all over the world, 5 invited speakers of international acclaim and more than 30 talks in person from the local community.
The annual meeting for 2023 is scheduled to take place in Thessaloniki, hosted by the the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in October 2023.
Last Updated June 15, 2023
Contact: PTBI / Dr. Paweł Łabaj, MCB, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 7A, 30-387 Kraków, Poland
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Geographical area included: Poland
Leadership Structure: Board of Directors (President, two vice-Presidents, Treasurer, Secretary)
Goals: Support and popularization of bioinformatics
in Poland.
Brief history: PBIS was established by 25 founding members on February 19th, 2008, and registered in the Polish court of law on February 27th. During the founding meeting of PBIS the first Board of Directors was elected, comprising 5 members, with prof. Jerzy Tiuryn as the President. During the Convention in October 2010 a new Board of Directors was elected, with prof. Janusz Bujnicki as the President, and they started the new term on January 1st, 2011. The term of the present BoD runs until the end of 2013. Thus far, PBIS had three Conventions, organized in 2008, 2009, and 2010. PBIS has been awarding annual prizes for the best MSc (since 2009) and PhD (since 2010) theses in bioinformatics defended in Poland.
Activities:
The first convention of PBIS was held near Warsaw, October 3-5, 2008, (around 60 participants). The first international bioinformatics conference (BIT) run under the auspices of PBIS was held in Torun, May 21-23, 2009 (around 60 participants. The PBIS Convention and BIT conferences are held annually, and are typically attended by around 70 participants. In 2011 a new website has been developed and PBIS has established its presence on Facebook. In addition to the PBIS Convention and BIT conferences in 2011, PBIS is involved in the organization of a meeting "Multi-Pole Approach to Structural Biology", November 16-19 in Warsaw.
Last Updated January 04, 2021
