Bioinformatics Experts converge on Dublin City University for One-Day Workshop and Symposium

by Ray Walshe

The School of Computing at Dublin City University hosted BIONFORMATICS INFORM 2005, a one-day international workshop and symposium that brought together industry, academia and venture capitalists to highlight the importance of this sector for the Irish economy on Wednesday, 17 February 2005. The event also served to facilitate dissemination of information across these groups and to showcase the current state of Bioinformatics research in Ireland today.

The event was officially opened by Mr Noel Aherne, T.D., Minister for Housing and Urban Renewal. He welcomed the 300 delegates to the Helix, stating that, "this conference provides an ideal opportunity in this area for partnering and knowledge sharing. It can play a key role in encouraging that collaboration and I wish the event organisers every success not only with this conference but also with their efforts into the future".

Among the guest speakers were Dr. Ena Prosser, Director of Enterprise Ireland Biotechnology Directorate; Prof. Denis Headon, President of Biolink USA-Ireland; Dr. Anton Enright, Computational and Functional Genomics, Sanger Institute; Seamus O' Hara, Director of Seroba BioVentures; and Dr. Jim Ryan, Associate Director of Circa Group Europe. Prof. Michael Comer, Director of Research at the Adelaide and Meath Hospital and Chair of the morning session, remarked that DCU was an appropriate setting for the event as it was the first university in Ireland to graduate taught Master students in Bioinformatics. He also commented on the success of the programme and the quality of graduates it had produced.

BIONFORMATICS INFORM 2005 has been a tremendous success and the organisers are very grateful for the positive feedback received from government agencies and industrial partners, especially the sponsors. They are particularly thankful to the staff from Dell, IBM, Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, Global Pharma Networks, Icon Clinical Research Labs, and the Irish Medical Devices Association, whose participation and involvement contributed to the success of this international event. It was extremely encouraging to see representation from all of the Irish universities, many of the Institutes of Technology, and lots of our colleagues who travelled from many of the institutions in Northern Ireland. The large number of industry delegates present also led to very exciting networking sessions around the event. We anticipate that BIONFORMATICS INFORM will become an annual event highlighting progress in this important sector for the Irish economy.

Please contact:
Ray Walshe, Dublin City University, Ireland
E-mail: Ray.Walshecomputing.dcu.ie