BOSTON, May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- The strength of the UK biotechnology industry will be highlighted today with the presentation of the prestigious Benjamin Franklin Award in Bioinformatics to Dr. Ewan Birney, a bioinformatician at the Cambridge, England-based European Bioinformatics Institute.
The award honors scientists who promote free and open access to software tools and applications in the bioinformatics field. Dr. Birney will accept the award at 9:45 am at the BioIT World Conference & Expo at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.
Dr. Birney is being honored for his advocacy of placing human genome sequence data into the public domain via the Web. He has helped to ensure the free flow of this information as co-leader of the Ensembl project, an open access software system that provides annotation data on 16 vertebrate and other large genome sequences including chimpanzee and dog.
“Dr. Birney has been a steadfast advocate of open access to the materials and methods used in bioinformatics, for which this award was created,” says Jeff Bizzaro, founder of The Bioinformatics Organization. “His work at the EBI in Cambridge, England exemplifies his innovative spirit and cutting-edge thinking.”
“I support the open release of data because if you can grow the common area everyone works on, it furthers scientific discoveries,” Dr. Birney says. “The quality of science in the UK is better than what you can find anywhere; the [EBI] campus is the leading location of only four in the world that has the infrastructure to support this type of work.”
UK Experts at BioIT World
In addition, several renowned experts from the UK are featured speakers at BioIT World. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who currently holds the 3Com Founders chair at MIT’s Laboratory for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL), delivered the keynote speech. Named “one of the 100 greatest minds of the century” by Time magazine in 1999, he is credited with inventing the World Wide Web.
Other BioIT World speakers include: -- Steve Walker, CIO of the UK Biobank project at Manchester University -- Michael Townsley, Finance Director/co-founder of Fusion Antibodies -- David Iberson-Hurst, founder of Assero Ltd. -- Dr. David Milward, CTO of Linguamatics, Ltd. UK Highlights in Research Excellence:
The UK boasts a rich history in biotechnology research and commercialization. Research thrives at world-class centers including the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the Institute of Cancer Research and the Imperial College, London. The country’s progressive R&D environment has fostered several successes:
-- Some 224 new products were under development in the UK in 2004, more than in any other European country. -- All of the top 12 global pharmaceutical companies have significant manufacturing/R&D facilities in the UK. -- Some 23 Nobel laureates have been awarded for biomedical research at UK research institutes over the past 40 years.
Businesses can find streamlined access to the UK biotechnology market through UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), the government’s international business development agency.
About UK Trade & Investment
UK Trade & Investment is the government organization that provides integrated support services for UK companies engaged in overseas trade and foreign businesses focused on the UK as an inward investment location. It brings together the work of teams in 200 British embassies and FCO posts overseas and government departments across Whitehall. In England, UK Trade & Investment services are delivered through the 45 Business Links and other partners including Regional Development Agencies and Chambers of Commerce, coordinated by nine regional International Trade Directors. The devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own arrangements for local delivery of services.
For additional information about UKTI and its resources and services, please visit UKTI’s website at http://www.uktradeinvestusa.com/ or for general queries, contact:
Shirar O’Connor-Mugler Katherine Stephan UK Trade & Investment Hill & Knowlton ph: (212) 745-0420 ph: (212) 885-0455 shirar.o’connor@fco.gov.ukkatherine.stephan@hillandknowlton.com
UK Trade & Investment
CONTACT: Shirar O’Connor-Mugler, UK Trade & Investment, +1-212-745-0420,or shirar.o’connor@fco.gov.uk; or Katherine Stephan, Hill & Knowlton,+1-212-885-0455, katherine.stephan@hillandknowlton.com
Web site: http://www.uktradeinvestusa.com/
