Bioinformatics experts meet for one-day workshop and symposium
18 February 2005

Ray Walsh, Director of Bioinformatics, School of Computing, DCU, Minister Noel Ahern, Prof Albert Pratt, Vice President, DCU

On Wednesday, February 17th 2005, 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. 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; Professor 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.v

Professor 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 has produced thus far.

According to Ray Walshe, event organiser and Director of Bioinformatics at DCU School of Computing, “BIONFORMATICS INFORM 2005 has been a tremendous success and I am very grateful for the positive feedback received from government agencies and industrial partners, especially our sponsors. I am 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.”