Bioinformatics Support and Training at the Weizmann Institute of Science
Rubin, E., Ben-Dor, S., Chalifa-Caspi, V., Esterman, L.,
Fichman, S., Frydman, R., Ophir, R., Orr, I., Prilusky,
J., Safran, M. and Kahana, C.
Bioinformatics and Biological Computing Unit, Biological Services, Weizmann
Institute of Science
To support the ability of Weizmann scientists to use the rapidly growing wealth of biological data and tools, the Bioinformatics and Biological Computing Unit (BBCU) maintains a large professional team. It serves as a knowledge base, by offering consulting services for bioinformatics users and developers. BBCU organizes many bioinformatics training activities such as courses, workshops and seminars in the fields of sequence analysis, genomics, bioinformatics software and database development, and DNA array data processing and analysis. The BBCU also identifies, purchases, and downloads useful data and software, as well as provides information about the availability and usefulness of these tools. The software includes Celeras CDS, Compugens Gencarta, Accelerys GCG, and more. Data sources include Genbank, EMBL, Swissprot, NCBIs NR, Transfac and over 50 additional databases. Finally, the BBCU maintains the infrastructure required to facilitate bioinformatics usage, including computers, software, data and mirror sites on a variety of hardware/software platforms. Some of the BBCU services are supported through the Israeli National Node (INN), and are provided to the entire Israeli academic community.