EXPANSION PLANS FOR EUROPE’S LEADING BIOINFORMATICS INSTITUTE
Plans to expand Europe’s leading provider and curator of biological databases are underway.The European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), in Cambridgeshire – one of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s (EMBL) five sites - will grow to one-and-a-half times its current size over the next five years in response to the rapid increase in the amount of raw scientific data emerging from biology.
Support from three of the UK’s leading funding bodies, the BBSRC, MRC and the Wellcome Trust, along with funding from EMBL, will provide the extra space needed to accommodate this expansion.
Bioinformatics, the science of using information technology to mine meaning from raw biological data, has experienced tremendous growth over the past five years.Following the success of the Human Genome Project, there has been an explosion of new research, new knowledge and new technology, the output of which requires archiving and maintenance.This ensures that it is in a format that can be accessed by scientists and computers around the world, with electronic links between different data sets to help users in their search for information.
The EBI plays a critical role in providing the resources and tools to do this and is recognised not only as the leading facility in Europe, but also as a world-leader in its field.Funding for the extra space, increasing the EBI’s current 3,000 square metre facility onto an expanded site totalling some 4,500 square metres, is the first step of an expansion programme that will enable it to stay at the forefront of the rapid advances made in biology.
“Bioinformatics started off as a highly specialised area, but is now at the heart of all biology” said Professor Janet Thornton, Director of the EBI. “Originally, we only had to deal with simple data, such as gene sequences and structures, but the human genome project has transformed biomedical research.We now have a whole host of genomes, interactions and pathways that are being studied, and a global user base demanding sophisticated resources that allow them to probe and navigate through the huge volume of biological information.
“I am thrilled we have the support and commitment from UK agencies and EMBL to build on our established activities.Our next challenge is to obtain stable funding for the services component of our work, so that we can continue to provide free and unrestricted access to our data resources.”
Dr Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust, said:”The EBI is a global resource, providing completely open access to vast quantities of crucial biological data.It guides scientists through a maze of information provided by their colleagues from around the world.It provides an essential toolkit for biological research.Our support is a step in the right direction and we hope it will encourage others to commit to the long-term sustainability of Europe’s leading provider of bioinformatics expertise.”
Professor Colin Blakemore, Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council added: “This expansion will enable EBI to stay at the forefront of the rapid advances made in biology.There is more need now than ever before to provide a sound infrastructure and the tools to understand raw biological data.”
BBSRC Chief Executive, Professor Julia Goodfellow, said: “The biosciences are becoming more quantitative and predictive.To successfully harness the power of integrative and multidisciplinary biology, data needs to be curated and made accessible to the wider community and EBI plays a vital role in this.The support provided by EBI will help the biosciences community to utilise the wealth of data being generated to develop their experiments.”
EMBL Director General, Iain Mattaj, said: "Everyone at EMBL is delighted that the UK funding agencies and the member states have responded to the EBI's urgent need for space to accommodate the exponential growth of the data resources it provides to the scientific community. These resources are now a vital part of almost all research in the life sciences. Although the associated running costs for the EBI's expansion plans have yet to be committed, the extra space is an important step towards the EBI moving into a period of stability. We must now concentrate on the next big challenge, which is to ensure sound and stable funding for the EBI data resources themselves."
The commitment and support of the funding agencies promises a bright future for the EBI, which is located on the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, alongside the internationally renowned Sanger Institute, which spearheaded the UK arm of the Human Genome Project.This support will help to ensure that bioinformatics in Europe will continue to flourish and is one objective in the EBI’s broader expansion plan.Other objectives, which depend on further funding, include:
- 1. The recruitment of scientists and IT specialists from across Europe, increasing the number of staff from 260 to 400,
- 2. The development of new data resources and tools, and updating existing ones, so that the EBI can continue to manage and maintain the influx of data associated with a post-genomic era, including proteins, molecular interactions and small molecules such as metabolites,
- 3. Expanding its research activities and diversifying into new areas, such as the interface between medical, chemical and biological information, mining scientific literature, and systems biology,
- 4. Enhancing its established programme of bioinformatics training and support to ensure that researchers can make the most of its freely available data resources.
Media contacts:
Wellcome Trust media office
Noorece Ahmed
Tel: 020 7611 8540
mailto:n.ahmed@wellcome.ac.uk
MRC media office
Sarah Egan
Tel: 020 7670 5138
mailto:Sarah.Egan@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk
BBSRC media office
Matt Goode
Tel: 01793 413 299
mailto:matt.goode@bbsrc.ac.uk
EMBL media office
Trista Dawson
Tel: +49 (0)6221 387 452
mailto: trista.dawson@embl.de
Facts on the EBI:
1. The EBI grew out of EMBL’s pioneering development of databases for biological sequences and was established as an outstation of EMBL at the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus in 1995.
2. The EBI is a non-profit academic organisation that forms part of the EMBL – an international network of research institutes funded by contributions from eighteen countries and dedicated to research in molecular biology.
3. The EBI serves researchers in molecular biology, genetics, medicine and agriculture, from academia, and the agricultural, biotechnology, chemical and pharmaceutical industries.
4. The EBI obtains around half its funding from the Member States of EMBL, but also has substantial support from the Commission of the EU, and Wellcome Trust-funded projects, in addition to the Trust hosting the site on its Genome Campus.Other work is supported by the UK research councils and the pharmaceutical and biotech industry.
5. On average, the EBI’s website receives 1.3 million hits a day.
6. When the EBI first opened, it hosted two major databases – one for DNA sequences, and one for protein sequences.Today, the EBI’s resources include protein structures, genomes, gene expression data, proteomes, molecular interactions, small molecules, pathways and scientific literature.
7. Researchers from every continent access the EBI’s resources, from academia, commercial and not-for-profit organisations.
8. EBI staff have been recruited from over 30 different countries.
Notes to editors:
1. The exact specification of the EBI’s expansion is still under discussion and will be one of three designs: refurbishment of existing facilities, extension to the current EBI building, or a new building.These discussions are ongoing and a decision is likely to be made in the autumn.
2. Depending on the option taken, the expansion will cost up to £14 million.
3. EMBL have committed €1 million(£700,000) to the EBI’s expansion plans, and this money is in addition to their rolling programme of funding.
4. The Wellcome Trust is an independent research-funding charity established in 1936 under the will of tropical medicine pioneer Sir Henry Wellcome.The Trust’s mission is to promote research with the aim of improving human and animal health and it currently spends more than £400 million per annum. http://www.wellcome.ac.uk
5. The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) is the UK funding agency for research in the life sciences. Sponsored by Government, BBSRC annually invests around £300 million in a wide range of research that makes a significant contribution to the quality of life for UK citizens and supports a number of important industrial stakeholders including the agriculture, food, chemical, healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk
6. The Medical Research Council (MRC) is a national organisation funded by the UK tax-payer. Its business is medical research aimed at improving human health; everyone stands to benefit from the outputs. The research it supports and the scientists it trains meet the needs of the health services, the pharmaceutical and other health-related industries and the academic world. MRC has funded work which has led to some of the most significant discoveries and achievements in medicine in the UK. About half of the MRC's expenditure of £500 million is invested in its 40 Institutes, Units and Centres. The remaining half goes in the form of grant support and training awards to individuals and teams in universities and medical schools. Web site at: http://www.mrc.ac.uk.