Asia-Pacific Bioinformatics Network Research Articles

GIW and InCoB, two premier bioinformatics conferences in Asia with a combined 40 years of history.

Knowledge discovery in bioinformatics thrives on joint and inclusive efforts of stakeholders. Similarly, knowledge dissemination is expected to be more effective and scalable through joint efforts. Therefore, the International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB) and the International Conference on Genome Informatics (GIW) were organized as a joint conference for the first time in 13 years of coexistence. The Asia-Pacific Bioinformatics Network (APBioNet) and the Japanese Society for Bioinformatics (JSBi) collaborated to host GIW/InCoB2015 in Tokyo, September 9-11, 2015. The joint endeavour yielded 51 research articles published in seven journals, 78 poster and 89 oral presentations, showcasing bioinformatics research in the Asia-Pacific region. Encouraged by the results and reduced organizational overheads, APBioNet will collaborate with other bioinformatics societies in organizing co-located bioinformatics research and training meetings in the future. InCoB2016 will be hosted in Singapore, September 21-23, 2016.

InCoB2014: mining biological data from genomics for transforming industry and health.

The 13th International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB2014) was held for the first time in Australia, at Sydney, July 31-2 August, 2014. InCoB is the annual scientific gathering of the Asia-Pacific Bioinformatics Network (APBioNet), hosted since 2002 in the Asia-Pacific region. Of 106 full papers submitted to the BMC track of InCoB2014, 50 (47.2%) were accepted in BMC Bioinformatics, BMC Genomics and BMC Systems Biology supplements, with three papers in a new BMC Medical Genomics supplement. While the majority of presenters and authors were from Asia and Australia, the increasing number of US and European conference attendees augurs well for the international flavour of InCoB. Next year's InCoB will be held jointly with the Genome Informatics Workshop (GIW), September 9-11, 2015 in Tokyo, Japan, with a view to integrate bioinformatics communities in the region.

APBioNet—Transforming Bioinformatics in the Asia-Pacific Region

The Asia-Pacific Bioinformatics Network (APBioNet; www.apbionet.org) is a nonprofit, nongovernmental, international organization founded in 1998 that focuses on the promotion of bioinformatics in the Asia-Pacific region. APBioNet's mission, since its inception, has been to pioneer the growth and development of bioinformatics awareness, training, education, infrastructure, resources, and research among member countries and economies. Its work includes technical coordination, liaison, and/or affiliation with other international scientific bodies, such as the European Molecular Biology network (EMBnet) and the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB). APBioNet has more than 20 organizational and 2,000 individual members from over 12 countries in the region, from industry, academia, research, government, investors, and international organizations. APBioNet is spearheading a number of key bioinformatics initiatives in collaboration with international organizations, such as the Asia-Pacific Advanced Network (APAN), the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and the Asia-Pacific International Molecular Biology Network (A-IMBN), and industry partners. Many of the initiatives and activities have been initiated through its flagship conference, the International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB). In 2012, APBioNet was incorporated in Singapore as a public limited liability company to ensure quality, sustainability, and continuity of its mission to advance bioinformatics across the region and beyond. We describe below the key thrust areas of APBioNet.

InCoB2013 introduces Systems Biology as a major conference theme

The Asia-Pacific Bioinformatics Network (APBioNet) held the first International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB) in Bangkok in 2002 to promote North-South networking. Commencing as a forum for Asia-Pacific researchers to interact with and learn from with scientists of developed countries, InCoB has become a major regional bioinformatics conference, with participants from the region as well as North America and Europe. Since 2006, InCoB has selected the best submissions for publication in BMC Bioinformatics. In response to the growth and maturation of data-driven approaches, InCoB added BMC Genomics in 2009 and with the introduction of this conference supplement, BMC Systems Biology to its journal choices for submitting authors. Co-hosting InCoB2013 with the second International Conference for Translational Bioinformatics (ICTBI) is in line with InCoB's support for the current trend in taking bioinformatics to the bedside, along with a systems approach to solving biological problems.

InCoB2012 Conference: from biological data to knowledge to technological breakthroughs.

Ten years ago when Asia-Pacific Bioinformatics Network held the first International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB) in Bangkok its theme was North-South Networking. At that time InCoB aimed to provide biologists and bioinformatics researchers in the Asia-Pacific region a forum to meet, interact with, and disseminate knowledge about the burgeoning field of bioinformatics. Meanwhile InCoB has evolved into a major regional bioinformatics conference that attracts not only talented and established scientists from the region but increasingly also from East Asia, North America and Europe. Since 2006 InCoB yielded 114 articles in BMC Bioinformatics supplement issues that have been cited nearly 1,000 times to date. In part, these developments reflect the success of bioinformatics education and continuous efforts to integrate and utilize bioinformatics in biotechnology and biosciences in the Asia-Pacific region. A cross-section of research leading from biological data to knowledge and to technological applications, the InCoB2012 theme, is introduced in this editorial. Other highlights included sessions organized by the Pan-Asian Pacific Genome Initiative and a Machine Learning in Immunology competition. InCoB2013 is scheduled for September 18-21, 2013 at Suzhou, China.

Towards big data science in the decade ahead from ten years of InCoB and the 1st ISCB-Asia Joint Conference

The 2011 International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB) conference, which is the annual scientific conference of the Asia-Pacific Bioinformatics Network (APBioNet), is hosted by Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is co-organized with the first ISCB-Asia conference of the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB). InCoB and the sequencing of the human genome are both celebrating their tenth anniversaries and InCoB’s goalposts for the next decade, implementing standards in bioinformatics and globally distributed computational networks, will be discussed and adopted at this conference. Of the 49 manuscripts (selected from 104 submissions) accepted to BMC Genomics and BMC Bioinformatics conference supplements, 24 are featured in this issue, covering software tools, genome/proteome analysis, systems biology (networks, pathways, bioimaging) and drug discovery and design.

InCoB celebrates its tenth anniversary as first joint conference with ISCB-Asia

In 2009 the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) started to roll out regional bioinformatics conferences in Africa, Latin America and Asia. The open and competitive bid for the first meeting in Asia (ISCB-Asia) was awarded to Asia-Pacific Bioinformatics Network (APBioNet) which has been running the International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB) in the Asia-Pacific region since 2002. InCoB/ISCB-Asia 2011 is held from November 30 to December 2, 2011 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Of 104 manuscripts submitted to BMC Genomics and BMC Bioinformatics conference supplements, 49 (47.1%) were accepted. The strong showing of Asia among submissions (82.7%) and acceptances (81.6%) signals the success of this tenth InCoB anniversary meeting, and bodes well for the future of ISCB-Asia.

InCoB2010 - 9th International Conference on Bioinformatics at Tokyo, Japan, September 26-28, 2010.

The International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB), the annual conference of the Asia-Pacific Bioinformatics Network (APBioNet), is hosted in one of countries of the Asia-Pacific region. The 2010 conference was awarded to Japan and has attracted more than one hundred high-quality research paper submissions. Thorough peer reviewing resulted in 47 (43.5%) accepted papers out of 108 submissions. Submissions from Japan, R.O. Korea, P.R. China, Australia, Singapore and U.S.A totaled 43.8% and contributed to 57.4% of accepted papers. Manuscripts originating from Taiwan and India added up to 42.8% of submissions and 28.3% of acceptances. The fifteen articles published in this BMC Bioinformatics supplement cover disease informatics, structural bioinformatics and drug design, biological databases and software tools, signaling pathways, gene regulatory and biochemical networks, evolution and sequence analysis.

Challenges of the next decade for the Asia Pacific region: 2010 International Conference in Bioinformatics (InCoB 2010)

The 2010 annual conference of the Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Network (APBioNet), Asia’s oldest bioinformatics organisation formed in 1998, was organized as the 9th International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB), Sept. 26-28, 2010 in Tokyo, Japan. Initially, APBioNet created InCoB as forum to foster bioinformatics in the Asia Pacific region. Given the growing importance of interdisciplinary research, InCoB2010 included topics targeting scientists in the fields of genomic medicine, immunology and chemoinformatics, supporting translational research. Peer-reviewed manuscripts that were accepted for publication in this supplement, represent key areas of research interests that have emerged in our region. We also highlight some of the current challenges bioinformatics is facing in the Asia Pacific region and conclude our report with the announcement of APBioNet’s 100 BioDatabases (BioDB100) initiative. BioDB100 will comply with the database criteria set out earlier in our proposal for Minimum Information about a Bioinformatics and Investigation (MIABi), setting the standards for biocuration and bioinformatics research, on which we will report at the next InCoB, Nov. 27 – Dec. 2, 2011 at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Advancing standards for bioinformatics activities: persistence, reproducibility, disambiguation and Minimum Information About a Bioinformatics investigation (MIABi)

The 2010 International Conference on Bioinformatics, InCoB2010, which is the annual conference of the Asia-Pacific Bioinformatics Network (APBioNet) has agreed to publish conference papers in compliance with the proposed Minimum Information about a Bioinformatics investigation (MIABi), proposed in June 2009. Authors of the conference supplements in BMC Bioinformatics, BMC Genomics and Immunome Research have consented to cooperate in this process, which will include the procedures described herein, where appropriate, to ensure data and software persistence and perpetuity, database and resource re-instantiability and reproducibility of results, author and contributor identity disambiguation and MIABi-compliance. Wherever possible, datasets and databases will be submitted to depositories with standardized terminologies. As standards are evolving, this process is intended as a prelude to the 100 BioDatabases (BioDB100) initiative whereby APBioNet collaborators will contribute exemplar databases to demonstrate the feasibility of standards-compliance and participate in refining the process for peer-review of such publications and validation of scientific claims and standards compliance. This testbed represents another step in advancing standards-based processes in the bioinformatics community which is essential to the growing interoperability of biological data, information, knowledge and computational resources.

Towards a career in bioinformatics

The 2009 annual conference of the Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Network (APBioNet), Asia's oldest bioinformatics organisation from 1998, was organized as the 8th International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB), Sept. 9-11, 2009 at Biopolis, Singapore. InCoB has actively engaged researchers from the area of life sciences, systems biology and clinicians, to facilitate greater synergy between these groups. To encourage bioinformatics students and new researchers, tutorials and student symposium, the Singapore Symposium on Computational Biology (SYMBIO) were organized, along with the Workshop on Education in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (WEBCB) and the Clinical Bioinformatics (CBAS) Symposium. However, to many students and young researchers, pursuing a career in a multi-disciplinary area such as bioinformatics poses a Himalayan challenge. A collection to tips is presented here to provide signposts on the road to a career in bioinformatics. An overview of the application of bioinformatics to traditional and emerging areas, published in this supplement, is also presented to provide possible future avenues of bioinformatics investigation. A case study on the application of e-learning tools in undergraduate bioinformatics curriculum provides information on how to go impart targeted education, to sustain bioinformatics in the Asia-Pacific region. The next InCoB is scheduled to be held in Tokyo, Japan, Sept. 26-28, 2010.

Extending Asia Pacific bioinformatics into new realms in the "-omics" era

The 2009 annual conference of the Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Network (APBioNet), Asia's oldest bioinformatics organisation dating back to 1998, was organized as the 8th International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB), Sept. 7-11, 2009 at Biopolis, Singapore. Besides bringing together scientists from the field of bioinformatics in this region, InCoB has actively engaged clinicians and researchers from the area of systems biology, to facilitate greater synergy between these two groups. InCoB2009 followed on from a series of successful annual events in Bangkok (Thailand), Penang (Malaysia), Auckland (New Zealand), Busan (South Korea), New Delhi (India), Hong Kong and Taipei (Taiwan), with InCoB2010 scheduled to be held in Tokyo, Japan, Sept. 26-28, 2010. The Workshop on Education in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (WEBCB) and symposia on Clinical Bioinformatics (CBAS), the Singapore Symposium on Computational Biology (SYMBIO) and training tutorials were scheduled prior to the scientific meeting, and provided ample opportunity for in-depth learning and special interest meetings for educators, clinicians and students. We provide a brief overview of the peer-reviewed bioinformatics manuscripts accepted for publication in this supplement, grouped into thematic areas. In order to facilitate scientific reproducibility and accountability, we have, for the first time, introduced minimum information criteria for our pubilcations, including compliance to a Minimum Information about a Bioinformatics Investigation (MIABi). As the regional research expertise in bioinformatics matures, we have delineated a minimum set of bioinformatics skills required for addressing the computational challenges of the "-omics" era.

Emerging strengths in Asia Pacific bioinformatics.

The 2008 annual conference of the Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Network (APBioNet), Asia's oldest bioinformatics organisation set up in 1998, was organized as the 7th International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB), jointly with the Bioinformatics and Systems Biology in Taiwan (BIT 2008) Conference, Oct. 20–23, 2008 at Taipei, Taiwan. Besides bringing together scientists from the field of bioinformatics in this region, InCoB is actively involving researchers from the area of systems biology, to facilitate greater synergy between these two groups. Marking the 10th Anniversary of APBioNet, this InCoB 2008 meeting followed on from a series of successful annual events in Bangkok (Thailand), Penang (Malaysia), Auckland (New Zealand), Busan (South Korea), New Delhi (India) and Hong Kong. Additionally, tutorials and the Workshop on Education in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (WEBCB) immediately prior to the 20th Federation of Asian and Oceanian Biochemists and Molecular Biologists (FAOBMB) Taipei Conference provided ample opportunity for inducting mainstream biochemists and molecular biologists from the region into a greater level of awareness of the importance of bioinformatics in their craft. In this editorial, we provide a brief overview of the peer-reviewed manuscripts accepted for publication herein, grouped into thematic areas. As the regional research expertise in bioinformatics matures, the papers fall into thematic areas, illustrating the specific contributions made by APBioNet to global bioinformatics efforts.

Bioinformatics research in the Asia Pacific: a 2007 update.

We provide a 2007 update on the bioinformatics research in the Asia-Pacific from the Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Network (APBioNet), Asia's oldest bioinformatics organisation set up in 1998. From 2002, APBioNet has organized the first International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB) bringing together scientists working in the field of bioinformatics in the region. This year, the InCoB2007 Conference was organized as the 6th annual conference of the Asia-Pacific Bioinformatics Network, on Aug. 27–30, 2007 at Hong Kong, following a series of successful events in Bangkok (Thailand), Penang (Malaysia), Auckland (New Zealand), Busan (South Korea) and New Delhi (India). Besides a scientific meeting at Hong Kong, satellite events organized are a pre-conference training workshop at Hanoi, Vietnam and a post-conference workshop at Nansha, China. This Introduction provides a brief overview of the peer-reviewed manuscripts accepted for publication in this Supplement. We have organized the papers into thematic areas, highlighting the growing contribution of research excellence from this region, to global bioinformatics endeavours.

Establishing bioinformatics research in the Asia Pacific

In 1998, the Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Network (APBioNet), Asia's oldest bioinformatics organisation was set up to champion the advancement of bioinformatics in the Asia Pacific. By 2002, APBioNet was able to gain sufficient critical mass to initiate the first International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB) bringing together scientists working in the field of bioinformatics in the region. This year, the InCoB2006 Conference was organized as the 5th annual conference of the Asia-Pacific Bioinformatics Network, on Dec. 18–20, 2006 in New Delhi, India, following a series of successful events in Bangkok (Thailand), Penang (Malaysia), Auckland (New Zealand) and Busan (South Korea). This Introduction provides a brief overview of the peer-reviewed manuscripts accepted for publication in this Supplement. It exemplifies a typical snapshot of the growing research excellence in bioinformatics of the region as we embark on a trajectory of establishing a solid bioinformatics research culture in the Asia Pacific that is able to contribute fully to the global bioinformatics community.

Towards an Educational Grid for Promoting Bioinformatics Competency in the Asia Pacific

abstractIn order to promote the awareness of bioinformatics, the availability of computational and database resources and the advancement of bioinformatics research competency in the Asia Pacific region, the National University of Singapore (NUS), Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Network (APBioNet), S* Life Science Informatics Alliance and Sun Microsystems’ Asia Pacific Science and Technology Center (APSTC) are collaborating to develop various components leading to a bioinformatics educational grid. Freely accessible via the Internet, this education grid combines (a) educational material from the S* Alliance, including audio-video teaching material from Singapore, Stanford, Sweden (Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University), University of Sydney, University of California San Diego, South African National Bioinformatics Institute (SANBI) and Macquarie University Sydney, (b) problem-based learning and tutorial modules from S* Alliance, (c) APBioBox software from APBioNet funded by IDRC Pan Asia Networking project, (d) Bio-Cluster Grid software from Sun Microsystems, (e) biological databases from the Bio-Mirrors project of APBioNet and the Asia Pacific Advanced Network (APAN), and (f) audio-conferencing emeeting system and the IVLE system from Centre for Instructional Technology, National University of Singapore. Strategies on building this educational grid with leading agencies in the region are also discussed.

Bioinformatics Service, Research and Education at CBI

Bioinformatics plays an important role for in the research and development of the life science and biotechnology. This paper intends to give an overview of the activities of bioinformatics service, research and education at the Center of Bioinformatics, Peking University; the national node of the European Molecular Biology Network and the Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Network.