About CBS

The Center for Biological Sequence Analysis at the Technical University of Denmark was formed in 1993, and conducts basic research in the field of bioinformatics and systems biology. The group of +90 scientists, working in ten specialist research groups, has a highly multi-disciplinary profile (molecular biologists, biochemists, medical doctors, physicists and computer scientists) with a ratio of 2:1 of bio-to-nonbio backgrounds. CBS represents one of the large bioinformatics groups in academia in Europe.

Bioinformatics is the term used to refer to the combination of methods in biology, computation, and information management, which are necessary to advance research relating to all aspects of living systems - from individual molecules, cells, and organs to entire organisms.

Today, research in molecular biology, biotechnology and pharmacology depends on information technology all the way from experiment to the publication of the results. Comprehensive public databases of DNA- and protein sequences, macromolecular structure, g ene and protein expression levels, pathway organization and cell signalling, have been established to optimise scientific exploitation of the explosion of data within biology. Unlike many other groups in the field of biomolecular informatics, Center for Biological Sequence Analysis directs its research primarily towards topics related to the elucidation of the functional aspects of complex biological mechanisms.

Among contemporary bioinformatics concerns are reliable computational interpretation of a wide range of experimental data, and the detailed understanding of the molecular apparatus behind cellular mechanisms of sequence information. By exploiting available experimental data and evidence in the design of algorithms, sequence correlations and other features of biological significance can be inferred. In addition to the computational research the center also has experimental efforts in gene expression analysis using DNA chips and data generation in relation to the physical and structural properties of DNA.

In the last decade, the Center for Biological Sequence Analysis has produced a large number of computational methods, which are offered to others via WWW servers.

Based on bioinformatics efforts started in the late 1980s, the activity was established formally as a center in 1993 by a grant from the Danish National Research Foundation.

Today, CBS is - in addition to a contribution from the Technical University of Denmark - funded by a multitude of sources including:

• The Danish Research Councils
• The Danish Center for Scientific Computing
• The Villum Kann Rasmussen Foundation
• The Novo Nordisk Foundation
• EU, NIH and Industry