JBIC will pool Japanese genomics research

Abstract

Last month, the Japan Biological Informatics Consortium was officially established as an independent, non‐profit organization after having reached all of its planned goals within its first 3 years. JBIC is a consortium of academia, government and industry, and its aim is to pool Japan's research resources in bioinformatics. Founded in 1998 by the Japan Biotechnology Association (JBA) with financial support from the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), it will now contract with governmental institutions and biotechnology companies to pursue and support genomics research and application. JBIC is part of a growing Japanese effort to catch up with the USA and Europe in the rapidly emerging field of bioinformatics. > It is Japan's perception that it has to catch up with other countries in genomics research and bioinformatics ‘There has been no infrastructure for bioinformatics, the interdisciplinary science. Research activities were not integrated. We have to join forces,’ Kazuo Katao, director of the Biochemical Industry Division, Basic Industries Bureau of the MITI, explains why the Japanese government decided to provide funding for the establishment of an interdisciplinary organization. To close the gap particularly with the USA, Katao, a former chemical engineer, created JBIC in 1998 with a phone call. ‘I called JBA to establish the head of the body to fix the lack of infrastructure in Japan,’ he recalls. ‘We don't have many [management] resources to invest, so I called on the JBA council,' he explains why MITI was asking the Japanese industry …