Every researcher who collects molecular information requires either some understanding of basic bioinformatics, or assistance with bioinformatics. Bioinformatics has become especially important for large-scale measurement technologies such as: microarrays, metabolomics and DNA sequencing. The combination of these new technologies with bioinformatics has made it an exciting time to be a biologist. In the last five years this combination has vastly increased our understanding of biological systems, and what happens when these systems go wrong. However, these new technologies have also produced major challenges. To keep up with the amount of information produced by these new technologies computational and statistical methods must be continuously improved to make use of current computer hardware. In addition, biologists have had to develop different mindsets to design scientifically robust experiments to understand biological systems in a more holistic manner. We are now facing the bioinformatic challenges that scientists such as Yuri Lazebnik warned us about back in 2002 when he said "Once the number of components in a system reaches a threshold, understanding the system without formal analytical tools requires geniuses... my advice to experimental biologists is to be prepared" (Cancer Cell 2002 vol 2 pp179-182). The Bioinformatics Institute is well placed to help New Zealand biologists overcome these challenges. Hide this content.

The re-launch recognises the complementary strengths of both Faculties in bioinformatics and computational biology. As part of the re-launch, Associate Professor James Curran (Department of Statistics, Faculty of Science) and Associate Professor Cristin Print (Department of Molecular Medicine & Pathology, School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences) have been appointed as Co-Directors of the Bioinformatics Institute. Both James and Cris have extensive research and commercial records in computational and statistical bioinformatics. James's research focuses on the use of genetic data in forensic analyses. Among his numerous distinctions, he is an Associate Editor for Science and Justice for the journal of the Forensic Science Society, and a Senior Consulting Forensic Scientist for the Forensic Science Service in the UK. Cris's research is on the bioinformatics of disease, cancer and human genetics. He is also co-founder of a bioinformatics and biotechnology company in Japan, and has developed a significant network of collaborators in the Asia-Pacific region and elsewhere. James and Cris will take over from Allen Rodrigo, who will continue as an Associate Investigator of the Bioinformatics Institute. The re-launched Institute is retaining it's current staff and teaching programmes and is developing a broad rage of new collaborative projects and activities. Hide this content.

Other members are experts in assisting biologists with the design, analysis and interpretation of experiments that use large-scale measurement technologies. Several members are involved in the development of new computational tools to provide easier analysis and improved understanding of biological data. We collaborate extensively with scientists involved in bioinformatics across New Zealand and overseas. Bioinformatics is inherently cross-disciplinary. The Institute prides itself on having staff with a strong academic background in multiple disciplines, and who are good communicators with specialists from other fields. The Institute also provides projects and facilities for graduate students and supports an extensive program of bioinformatics teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate level. For examples of specific research, please see our Research page. Please contact us to discuss how we may be able to help you with your research. Hide this content.