ISCB Affiliated Groups
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
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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
• Pasqualina D'Ursi
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.
The yearly bioinformatics conference was held in June 2024 in Trento, featuring a special session on High Resolution RNA Computational Biology session, a workshop titled Cosmic codes: Bridging Space Explorations and Bioinformatics, and a Young BITS-RSG-InfoLife Symposium. There were more than 200 in-person participants and a lively scientific program: https://bioinformatics.it/bits2024
Furthermore, in winter 2024 a special event was held in collaboration with the Italian Biochemist society, entitled https://www.blendingbb.it/ymw2024.
The event was a sucess with more than 300 participants, 80 contributions and 3 keynote lectures.
Activities and programs that demonstrate the advancement of bioinformatics and computational biology:
The 2025 annual meeting of BITS will take place from 11 to 13th of June in Naples, in the Biotechnology Department of the Federico II University of Naples.
Travel fellowships are granted each year to at least 10 young applicants from the whole country.
Last Updated February 14, 2025
Contact: Prof. Valentýna Provaznik, Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Geographical area included: Czech Republic
Leadership Structure: President and Secretary voted at general assembly
Year founded: 2004
Goals: The main goal of the FOBIA group is to facilitate contacts and exchange of ideas among Czech scientists interested or working in bioinformatics, mainly by the means of workshops, meetings
and lectures.
Activities:
Series of lectures in Prague (ongoing)
• 1st annual meeting in Sv.Jan pod Skalou (2005)
• 2nd annual meeting in Telc (2006)
• 3rd annual meeting (2007)
• 4th annual meeting (2008) - held as a Bioinformatics session at the CSBMB annual congress in Ceske Budejovice
• 5th annual meeting in Zlin (2009)
Last Updated December 19, 2024
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 December 13, 2024
Contact: Prof. Dr. Caroline Friedel
Lehr- und Forschungseinheit für Bioinformatik
Institut für Informatik
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Amalienstrasse 17, 4. Stock, Büro 402
80333 Munich/Germany
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Geographical area included: Europe, Germany
Leadership Structure: Prof. Dr. Caroline Friedel (LMU Munich), Speaker of the board
Prof. Dr. Sven Rahmann (U Saarbruecken ) and
Prof. Dr. Prof. Dr. Dominik Heider (Philipps Universität Marburg, both Vice speakers of the board
+ 6 board members, see www.bioinformatik.de
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 2023 (12-14 Sep 2024) attracted a large audience of 267 bioinfomaticians to Hamburg, GCB 2024 (www.gcb2024.de) will take place in Bielefeld from 30 Sep-2 Oct 2024.
The FaBI dissertation prize (EUR 1000) is awarded annually on occasion of GCB. Awardee in 2023 was Rudolf Schill (Universität Regensburg/ ETH Zürich) for 'Mutual Hazard Networks: Markov Chain Models of Cancer Progression'
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 December 13, 2024
Contact: Christos Ouzounis
BCCB-AIIA
School of Informatics
Aristotle University of Thessalonica
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: 2023-2026
Chair: Christos Ouzounis
Deputy Chair: Anastasia Chasapi
Secretary: Anastasios Oulas
Treasurer: Ilias Kappas
Member: Vasilis Promponas
Deputy Member: Ioannis Iliopoulos
Deputy Member: Ioannis Vizirianakis
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 (2020)
upcoming: hbio2025.hbio.info
most recent: http://hbio.info/conferences-when/hbioinfo-15-online-meeting/
see also: http://hbio.info/activities-how/
and
importantly:
https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007532
Activities and programs that demonstrate the advancement of bioinformatics and computational biology:
http://hbio2025.hbio.info/
expecting 500 participants
currently under consideration for 'ISCB conference'
Last Updated February 24, 2025
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
2023: Thessaloniki, Holiday Inn, Greece
2024: Lamia, University of Thessaly Campus
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 Lamia in early November 2024. We had more than 80 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 October 2025 is scheduled to take place in Athens, hosted by the the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens.
Last Updated March 18, 2025
Contact: Dr. Paweł Łabaj,
PTBI Treasurer
MCB Deputy Director for General Affairs
Małopolska Centre of Biotechnology (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.
To achieve its objectives the Society:
1. organizes conventions, symposia, scientific meetings, readings, lectures, courses competitions and
awards and prizes,
2. publishes and supports scientific journals, books and other publications in the field of bioinformatics,
3. gives opinions on the state and needs of bioinformatics in Poland and addresses its concerns to the authorities,
4. proposes standards for teaching bioinformatics,
5. cooperates with related associations in the country and abroad.
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. The term of the present BoD runs until the end of 2025. Thus far, PBIS had fifteen Conventions organized annually. PBIS has been awarding annual prizes for the best BSs (since 2021), MSc (since 2009) and PhD (since 2010) theses in bioinformatics defended in Poland.
Activities:
Current Year Activity Summary:
The Polish Bioinformatic Society (PTBI) Symposium convenes annually at leading Polish Universities, and in 2023, the Silesian University of Technology hosted participants from all over the world. The 15th PTBI Symposium, spanning a three-day duration and divided into four scientific sessions, gathered around 100 participants and centered on research related to machine learning in biomedicine, RNA structure algorithms, next-generation sequencing methods, and microbiome analysis but was not limited to only those topics. The meeting also recognized outstanding research conducted by young scientists by awarding the best poster and best talk. Finally, the awards for the best PhD, MSc, and BSc thesis in bioinformatics defended in Poland were given. The report summarizes the key highlights and outcomes of the meeting has been published in Bioinformatics Advances: https://doi.org/10.1093/bioadv/vbad187. The conference program can be found here: https://www.ptbi.org.pl/website/conferences/ptbi2023/
PTBI Symposium has renowned keynote speakers: Dr. Djork-Arné Clevert, Head of Machine Learning Research, Vice President, Pfizer, Berlin, Germany; Dr. Ana Conesa, Research Professor Institute for Integrative Systems Biology- Spanish National Research Council, Spain; Prof. dr hab. inż. Andrzej Polański, Head of the Scientific Council for Technical Informatics and Telecommunication at the Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice, Poland; Dr hab. Joanna Sułkowska prof. UW, Head of the Interdisciplinary laboratory for modeling biological systems at the Centre of New Technologies at the University of Warsaw, Poland; Dr. Kasthuri Venkateswaran, Senior Research Scientist, California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Biotechnology and Planetary Protection Group, Pasadena, California, USA. Conference was supported by Ministry of Education and Science grant [KONF/SP/0441/2023/01] as well as by BGI.
Another conference was organized by PTBI and Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Informatics, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun. The 23rd annual conference “BioInformatics in Torun – BIT23” was devoted mainly, but not exclusively, to: "Bioinformatics, Artificial Intelligence and Forensic Science - BARIFORCE. The conference took place on 29-30.06 and attracted about 40 participants, mainly students. Among speakers we can distinguish: i) Marcin Woźniak, Collegium Medicum in Bydgoszcz Nicolaus Copernicus University, Bydgoszcz, Poland with a presentation “Introduction to forensic genetics and genomics" ; Jaroslaw Meller, Cincinnati Children`s Hospital Medical Center and University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, US with a presentation: “Towards Multiomics Single Cell Resolution Atlas of ccRCC: Combining scRNA-seq and Spatial Transcriptomics to Identify and Characterize Cell Communities Connected to Cancer Progression” or Scott Tighe, Vermont Integrative Genomics Lab, Burlington Vermont, USA with a presentation: “Technical Considerations For Metagenomic Analysis of Low Biomass Environments”. Full program can be accessible throught the conference web: https://www.ptbi.org.pl/website/conferences/bit23/
Conference was supported by Ministry of Education and Science grant [KONF/SP/0440/2023/01]
Activities and programs that demonstrate the advancement of bioinformatics and computational biology:
Future plans: In 2024 the PTBI Symposium will be held in Warsaw on 11-13.09 while BIT in Toruń (as usual) on 6-8.06. The competitions for best BSc, MSc, and PhD theses have been already announced. This year we also plan to support meetings of bioinformatics student clubs which aim to integrate students from different university across Poland. We also have declared our readiness to support organization of one of the upcoming ECCB conferences in Kraków.
Last Updated March 11, 2024
Contact: Anna-Sophie Fiston-Lavier, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Geographical area included: France
Leadership Structure: Board of directors directory :
Anna-Sophie Fiston-Lavier (President); Sandra Derozier (Vice-presidents); Elodie Darbo (Vice-presidents); Cyril Noël (treasurer); Audrey Bihouée; Erwan Corre; Delphine Potier; Pierre Poulain; Marie-France Sagot
Goals: SFBI was founded on June 1, 2005. SFBI is an association (under the French law of 1901) independent of supervisory bodies, institutes and companies, representing the entire bioinformatics community, whatever the scientific field and laboratory (private or public). SFBI represents the entire Bioinformatics community: researchers, students, lecturers, engineers, laboratories and platforms, and covers all disciplinary fields (interface with Molecular Biology, Computer Science, Maths and Statistics, Physics). SFBI is administered by a board of members elected for a 3-year term. It comprises an elected president, one or two elected vice-presidents and a treasurer. Board members work in groups: communications (website, mailing lists, networks, etc.), JOBIM management, awards and grants, training and professions (REBIF/METBIF), etc.
To ensure a smooth transition of functions, the board is renewed every year. As a reminder, only members can vote in the elections held every year in June/July. Since 2021, SFBI has been a founding, active and associate member of the Collège des Sociétés Savantes Académiques de France (CoSSAF).
Activities:
The Société Française de BioInformatique (SFBI) had a vibrant and impactful year in 2024, demonstrating its commitment to advancing bioinformatics research and fostering a thriving community of scientists, researchers, and students. This report highlights SFBI's key activities in 2024, with a particular focus on international events that have strengthened the society’s global reach and collaborations.
### Participation and support of International events
a. The SFBI, represented by its president, was present at the International Society for Computational Biology 2024 (ISMB2024) held in Montreal, Canada. The SFBI supported French researchers and students to present their work offering travel fellowships, ensuring strong representation of France in one of the largest international bioinformatics conferences. Several SFBI members participated as keynote speakers, workshop organizers, and poster presenters.
b. For the second consecutive year, the SFBI actively participated in and supported the YS2C 2024 International Conference, organized in collaboration with the German Society for Bioinformatics (GCB). This event serves as a key platform to foster international connections and promote excellence in bioinformatics research. In line with its commitment to supporting young researchers in cancer research, the SFBI awarded a €100 prize for the best presentation, reinforcing its dedication to recognizing outstanding scientific contributions. This partnership strengthens ties between national societies and underscores SFBI's role in advancing the global bioinformatics community.
c. Through its collaboration with ELIXIR Europe via the Institut Français de Bioinformatique (IFB), the SFBI contributed to bioinformatics training initiatives and co-developed educational resources. French representatives played a key role in hosting joint webinars and tutorials focused on FAIR data principles and reproducible bioinformatics workflows.
d. The SFBI also actively supported the creation of new bioinformatics societies in Europe and South America.
### JOBIM, the SFBI-Led conference
As co-organizer of JOBIM (Journées Ouvertes en Biologie, Informatique et Mathématiques), the largest annual bioinformatics conference in France, the SFBI continues to provide a key platform for over 500 researchers, students, and professionals to exchange knowledge, foster collaborations, and highlight cutting-edge advances in bioinformatics. SFBI plays a crucial role in coordinating the event, ensuring a high-quality scientific program and a welcoming environment for participants at all career stages. Each year, SFBI offers travel grants and awards for the best presentations and posters.
JOBIM 2024, hosted in Toulouse, featured an exceptional lineup of keynote speakers, thematic sessions, and workshops covering a wide range of bioinformatics topics, from genomics and structural biology to machine learning and data visualization. The event's popularity led to a capped attendance of 583 participants. This year’s edition placed a special emphasis on inclusivity and interdisciplinarity, aligning with SFBI’s mission to integrate bioinformatics into life sciences.
Looking ahead, SFBI has supported the local organizers of JOBIM 2025 in Bordeaux (July 8-11, 2025) and has already initiated planning for JOBIM 2026.
### Impact on the Global Bioinformatics Community
SFBI’s international activities in 2024 have reinforced its position as a key player in the global bioinformatics landscape. By fostering cross-border collaborations, hosting events, and supporting the professional development of its members, SFBI continues to contribute to global computational biology challenges and promote research excellence. SFBI has a long-standing tradition of supporting numerous initiatives within the bioinformatics community. In 2024, SFBI reinforced its commitment by backing various scientific events that foster collaboration, teaching innovation, and knowledge exchange:
a. REBICA – A meeting dedicated to bioinformatics and computational biology, fostering discussions on recent advances and challenges in the field in the south-east of France.
b. BIOTIC – A scientific meeting bringing together researchers and professionals to explore innovations in bioinformatics and its applications in life sciences in the south-west of France.
c. Montpellier Omics Days – A meeting organized by Bioinformatic master students from Montpellier, focused on multi-omics approaches, providing a platform for students and biologists to discuss integrative strategies in genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics with experts in those fields.
d. JeBiF Hackathon (before JOBIM) – An satellite event organized by JeBiF, the young bioinfomatician group, offering the opportunity to collaborate, develop new tools, and tackle bioinformatics challenges in a hands-on setting.
e. Workshop on Metabolism Modeling – A specialized workshop dedicated to computational modeling of metabolism, aimed at improving our understanding of metabolic networks and their applications in research.
In 2024, SFBI awarded 24 travel fellowships and five scientific prizes for the best presentations and posters:
a. Best presentation:
* Romane Junker – Integration of metataxonomic datasets into microbial association networks highlights shared bacterial community dynamics in fermented vegetables.
*Yanis Asloudj – scEVE: a scRNA-seq ensemble clustering algorithm that leverages the extrinsic variability to prevent over-clustering.
b. Best communication/poster :
*Benjamin Vacus - Benchmark study of Adaptive Sampling algorithms – simulation of various viral mixtures.
*Dorine Merlat - Annotation of Myriapoda genomes with a new tool: EXOGAP.
*Pierre Giroux - Mapping cellular networks by mass spectrometry-based single-cell proteomics.
### New Community Resources in 2024
The same year, the SFBI also introduced new valuable resources to support the bioinformatics community:
f. Database of the laboratories/team: The SFBI created a comprehensive list of laboratories and research teams to facilitate the identification of key players in the field. This resource helps connect researchers, making it easier for individuals to find teams with similar interests and establish collaborations within the bioinformatics community.
g. Database of the Bioinformatics Networks: To combat the isolation often faced by new bioinformaticians, the SFBI support local networks aimed at newcomers to the field. These networks are designed to help individuals who are starting new positions but have not yet familiarized themselves with the community in their region. By connecting bioinformaticians across locations, the SFBI ensures that they feel supported and integrated into the wider scientific community.
h. Database Private Companies: The SFBI has also teamed up with private companies to offer support for the professional integration of young bioinformaticians by planning the organization of job fairs during the JOBIM conference. These collaborations offer scientists at the start of their careers valuable opportunities to make contact with potential employers, thereby facilitating their entry into the world of work.
Through these initiatives, the SFBI continues to demonstrate its commitment to fostering collaboration, inclusivity, and career development within the bioinformatics field.
Future Directions
Building on the success of 2024, SFBI is committed to further expanding its international presence in the coming years. Future initiatives include strengthening partnerships with African and Asian bioinformatics societies and launching a global initiative on sustainable bioinformatics infrastructure to promote eco-friendly computational practices.
Additionally, SFBI is exploring the implementation of a joint membership system on its website to encourage members to also join ISCB. This dual membership would provide significant discounts on registration fees for both JOBIM and ISMB conferences, fostering greater engagement and collaboration within the global bioinformatics community.
### Conclusion
Through its dedication to fostering collaboration and innovation, SFBI continues to play a pivotal role in advancing bioinformatics in France and internationally. With a strong commitment to supporting the next generation of bioinformaticians and facilitating knowledge exchange across borders, SFBI remains at the forefront of the bioinformatics community.
Activities and programs that demonstrate the advancement of bioinformatics and computational biology:
SFBI is co-piloting the organization of JOBIM conference and continues to support community initiatives through travel grants and prizes.
Last Updated January 31, 2025
