SciDev.Net

The Africa Genome Initiative is an Africa-wide research programme designed to further Africa's involvement in the Human Genome Project. Run by the South African Human Sciences Research Council, the Intiative organises an annual conference and publishes the magazine, African Scientist.

APBioNet is a non-profit, nongovernmental organisation that focuses on the promotion of bioinformatics in the Asia Pacific region. Since 1998, it has helped develop a bioinformatics network infrastructure, facilitated the exchange of data and information, run training programs, workshops and symposia, and encouraged collaborations in the field of bioinformatics with an Asia Pacific focus.

The Beijing Genomics Institute is the largest non-profit genomics research institute in China. Founded in July 1999 by a group of overseas Chinese scientists, BGI has been growing rapidly with the support from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. China was the only developing country member of the International Human Genome Project Consortium, and BGI played a leading role in the sequencing of chromosome 3. [Click here for Chinese version.]

The Chinese National Human Genome Centre in Beijing was established in 1998 and played a key role in the Human Genome Project. It aims to strengthen international collaboration and attract more foreign researchers - especially overseas Chinese scientists - to genomic research in China, and has departments for genomic sequencing, disease genomics, functional genomic and bioinformatics. The Centre is supported by the national Ministry of Science and Technology, the municipal government and the Chinese Academy of Science.

The Center for Genome Ethics, Law, & Policy - part of Duke University's Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy - was created to foster ethically responsible and socially beneficial uses of genome science, while addressing the complex ethical, legal, social and policy impacts of the genome revolution.

EMBO is an academy of bioscientists in Europe. It provides fellowships, workshops and training, and participates in public dialogue activites. In 2001, the organistion established a world programme, supporting workshops in non-European countries. EMBO publishes The EMBO Journal and EMBO Reports, and is the creator of E-BioSci, a new electronic platform for linking genomic and other data with reasearch literature.

India's Institute of Bioinformatics is a not-for-profit organisation engaged in cutting-edge research into databases, computational genomics, proteomics and comparative genomics. Its initial goal is to create a freely available human Protein Reference Database using open source technologies and to experimentally verify predicted human genes using molecular biology and proteomics-based methods.

The Institute of genomics and Integrative Biology is a constituent laboratory of India's Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. It is engaged in various aspects of modern biotechnology with a special focus on functional genomics and genome informatics. Formerly the Centre for Biochemical Technology, the organiastion is evolving into an interdisciplinary institute comprising several networked laboratories.

The International HapMap Project is a partnership of scientists and funding agencies from Canada, China, Japan, Nigeria, the United Kingdom and the United States to develop a public resource that will help researchers find genes associated with human disease and responses to drugs and environmental factors. The information produced by the Project will be made freely available.

SANBI's role is to bring genome information, computational biology, and analytical tools to the South African research community, and to conduct genomic analysis relevant to South African health research and biotechnology. It aims to raise awareness of genome biology, develop analysis systems relevant to South Africa (for example, by providing web-based database tools), develop human resources in bioinformatics (particularly graduate students), and to conduct topical research.

Founded in 1992, The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) is a not-for-profit research institute whose primary research interests are in structural, functional and comparative analysis of genomes and gene products from a wide variety of organisms. TIGR has completed the genome sequence of many pathogens including those that cause cholera, tuberculosis and meningitis. It also contributed to the international human genome sequencing project. TIGR is involved in numerous collaborations with academic institutions around the world including several with scientists in developing countries.

The National Human Genome Research Institute led the US contribution to the sequencing of the human genome. Following the completion of the Human Genome Project, NHGRI has moved into areas of genetic and genomic research aimed at improving human health and fighting disease. It also supports the investigation of ethical, legal and social implications surrounding genetics research, and conducts educational outreach activities in genetics and genomics.

The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute was set up in 1992 by the Wellcome Trust and the UK Medical Research Council in order to further our knowledge of genomes. It is one of the world's leading genomics centres, and is responsible for the completion of the sequence of approximately one-third of the human genome as well as genomes of model organisms such as mouse and zebrafish, and more than 90 pathogen genomes. It is engaged in a range of post-genomic programmes designed to understand the biological function of genes and their relevance to our health.