Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics
The SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics is an academic not-for-profit foundation which federates bioinformatics activities throughout Switzerland.
Abbreviation
SIB
30 March 1998
SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics
Quartier Sorge
Batiment Amphipole
1015 Lausanne
Switzerland
The institute was established on 30 March 1998 and its mission is to provide core bioinformatics resources to the national and international life science research community in fields such as genomics, proteomics and systems biology as well as to lead and coordinate the field of bioinformatics in Switzerland. In particular, it promotes research, develops databanks and computer technologies, and is involved in teaching and service activities.
History[edit]
The institute was originally created to provide a framework for stable long-term funding for both the Swiss-Prot database and the Swiss EMBnet node. Swiss-Prot in particular went through a major funding crisis in 1996,[1] which led the leaders of the five research groups active in bioinformatics in Geneva and Lausanne, Ron Appel, Amos Bairoch, Philipp Bucher, Victor Jongeneel and Manuel Peitsch to create SIB.[2] Once created, the institute could then apply for funding under a Swiss law that allows the government to fund up to 50% of expenses of vital research and teaching infrastructures.[3]
The first director of the institute was Victor Jongeneel followed by Ernest Feytmans between 2001 and September 2007. From 1 October 2007 until July 2018, the institute was led by Ron Appel, one of its founding members.[4][5] Between July 2018 and March 2022, the SIB was led by Christine Durinx and Ron Appel, as Joint Executive Directors. Starting 1st April 2022, Christophe Dessimoz replaced Christine Durinx as joint executive director.[6] Since October 2022 Christophe Dessimoz is sole Executive Director, following the retirement of Ron Appel.[7]
Organisation[edit]
The SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics is a federation of research groups with affiliated bioinformaticians at 21 SIB partner institutions, including the Universities of Basel, Bern, Fribourg, Geneva, Lausanne, Lugano and Zurich, the Federal Institutes of Technology in Lausanne and Zurich, the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, the Institute of Oncology Research in Bellinzona, and the Geneva School of Business Administration (HEG). Current research groups in SIB are located in Basel, Bern, Fribourg, Geneva, Lausanne, Lugano, Zurich, Yverdon, Wädenswil, Bellinzona and Davos.
SIB federates more than 70 research, service and infrastructure groups, gathering more than 700 scientists in fields as varied as proteomics, transcriptomics, genomics, systems biology, structural bioinformatics, evolutionary bioinformatics, modelling, imaging, biophysics, population genetics and clinical bioinformatics. The SIB organizes an annual international scientific meeting, the [BC]2 Basel Computational Biology Conference.
Popular science[edit]
The SIB is also involved in bringing bioinformatics to the layman. Understanding the growing importance this relatively recent science has in today’s society is becoming fundamental. Indeed, in not too distant a future, patients will be referring to results directly generated by bioinformatics methods. Since the year 2000, in order to heighten public awareness, the SIB has taken part in numerous science fairs, created two online magazines,[8][9] an outdoor exhibition and, in 2012, a virtual exhibition.[10]