The Scottish Bioinformatics Forum merges with Nexxus

Set up in 2001 to "establish Scotland as a globally recognised and leading location for conducting cutting edge bioinformatics research and sustainable commercial activity", the Scottish Bioinformatics Forum (SBF) has been highly successful in achieving its aims.

Now that SBF has matured as an initiative, gained acceptance and had significant interactions and impact cross-Scotland and further afield, the time has come to ring in a new phase.  Nexxus, the life science networking organisation for Scotland's life scientists established in 2003, has broadly similar aims to the Forum and is already familiar to many of its members through its website, publications and events.  The timely merger of the two bodies is therefore seen as a highly beneficial move by both organisations.

As SBF's former Director, Chris Janssen explained, "The success to date of the SBF is a clear consequence of, and tribute to, the activities of SBF members, but also a testament to the positive impact of SBF's relationship with, and home in, the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE).  RSE's role, in taking on SBF as a project of the RSE Scotland Foundation, has been in nurturing SBF to a pan-Scotland initiative.

"As a well established and well supported network, we were keen to find a safe pair of hands to take over SBF's running on a day to day basis and to continue representation of our 500 members.  In a nutshell, we needed an organisation that already successfully engaged with life science academics and industry across Scotland and whose mission - to promote and support Scotland's expertise and capabilities - mirrored ours.   Nexxus is the ideal candidate to ensure continuity in provision of the type of services and level of responsiveness and assistance which our members have come to expect."

Graeme Boyle, Director of Nexxus said, "We are delighted to welcome SBF's members - some of whom already engage with us - to our wider network.  Bioinformatics is a vital component of Scotland's wide and varied life science offering and Nexxus looks forward to having a more active involvement in continuing to build upon this recognised strength.  The joining of the two memberships can only benefit and strengthen both groups by providing access to wider contacts and enhanced opportunities for collaboration and knowledge exchange."

Professor John Coggins, current Chairman of the SBF Steering Group and former member of the Nexxus West Steering Group said, "We are delighted to see Nexxus take on board stewardship of the SBF.   Based on past and present involvement with both organisations, I have every confidence that this merged body will prove to be good not only for the SBF and Nexxus, but also for Scotland  as we continue to make the most of our advantages as a small, but exceedingly well connected and resourceful, life science community."

Scottish strengths in bioinformatics include structure and function of biomolecules, genetics of complex diseases, pathway biology, functional genomics and high-throughput technologies.  This expertise and technology is being used to find answers and solutions in the fields of cancer, cardio-vascular, development, and infectious diseases research.