GOVERNMENT

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC -- The North Carolina Supercomputing Center (NCSC) was recently named the official U.S. mirror site for the ExPASy (Expert Protein Analysis System) proteomics server of the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB). NCSC is a division of MCNC, a nonprofit corporation providing advanced capabilities in electronic and information technologies to support education and industry and to enhance technology-based economic development in North Carolina. This important role will allow NCSC to serve researchers and educators in North Carolina, the nation, and even world-wide by providing shared access to this remarkable collection of databases and software tools for proteomics. It is a major step in MCNC's plan to develop the computing, data, and networking infrastructure to support a strong effort in genomics and bioinformatics by public and private institutions across the state. The ExPASy mirror site (http://us.expasy.org) is being operated by MCNC on behalf of the North Carolina Genomics and Bioinformatics Consortium (NCGBC). The NCGBC was established in December 2000 by the NC Biotechnology Center to foster partnerships between universities, biological science and computing companies, and foundations and non-profit organizations so that genomics, bioinformatics and proteomics efforts will thrive in North Carolina, and the state's researchers can develop products to benefit many people. By becoming a U.S. mirror site, NCSC joins Switzerland, Australia, Canada, China, Korea, and Taiwan in providing distributed data services to a world-wide user community. "By establishing a mirror site in North Carolina, our researchers and educators will enjoy improved access to ExPASy's resources because of the outstanding networking services provided by NCREN to higher-education's faculty and students. We will also serve higher education throughout the U.S. using NCREN's high-speed Internet2 connection. ExPASy is one of the world's best collection of data and tools for the burgeoning field of proteomics. Its availability will speed the genomics revolution toward its ultimate goal of understanding biological processes at a fundamental level," stated MCNC vice president for High Performance Computing and Communications, Thom H. Dunning, Jr. As a production mirror-site, NCSC will provide SIB a 24 hr x 7 day/week dedicated Sun server that will be used by SIB for remotely installing, maintaining, and upgrading their software tools and databases. The ExPASy (Expert Protein Analysis System) proteomics server of the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB) is dedicated to the analysis of protein sequences and structures, including SWISS-PROT, the famous protein knowledgebase, and TrEMBL, its computer-annotated supplement. For additional information, see: www.expasy.ch , www.isb-sib.ch , www.ncgbc.org , www.ncsc.org and www.ncren.net