Bioinformatics is increasingly important as the means of turning genomic and other biological data into new knowledge about how whole organisms work. Janet Thornton, Professor of Biomolecular Structure and Modelling at University College London, (UCL) takes up the post of Director of the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) next month (October 2001), with a remit — and new money — to expand its research activities. The development is a huge boost for bioinformatics in Europe and should benefit all sections of the biological community.
The EBI is located at the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus at Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, a site shared by the Sanger Centre and the UK Medical Research Council Human Genome Mapping Project Resource Centre. It is part of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), an international network of research institutes funded by EU countries, Switzerland and Israel and headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany. In 1980, EMBL established the world's first ...
