Press release

Lausanne, 9 October 2014

Ron Appel and the SIB Swiss Institute of honoured with the BioAlps Award 2014

Professor Ron Appel, co-founder and Executive Director of the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, was honoured with the BioAlps Award 2014 to recognize his major contribution to the creation and successful development of the SIB. By providing the necessary bioinformatics infrastructure for medical and life science research, the institute is instrumental to good science in Switzerland. Moreover, through its leading position on the European and worldwide bioinformatics scene, the SIB contributes to Switzerland’s international reputation in terms of expertise and know-how. The Award was presented by Dr Benoît Dubuis, President of BioAlps, during the traditional BioAlps Networking Day in Neuchâtel in presence of many actors of the life science field.

The BioAlps Award intends to honour a personality without whom western Switzerland would not enjoy its extraordinary international reputation in the field of life sciences. As Co-founder and Executive Director of the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Professor Appel allowed Swiss bioinformatics to rank among the world leaders of this discipline. Ron Appel is a pioneer of bioinformatics and the SIB, which he has been leading since 2007, is providing an indispensable support to the research community, notably through the more than 150 bioinformatics resources accessible from its portal ExPASy. Besides Swiss-Prot, the worldwide reference in the field of proteins, SIB also offers other resources such as modelling and docking tools for drug design. SIB also provides a wide range of bioinformatics expertise and services such as statistical support to enable researchers carry out their projects and analyse the data they produce.

The BioAlps Award symbolises interdisciplinary and collaboration which are so essential for life science research and which SIB embodies through its missions and activities. By coordinating bioinformatics activities in Switzerland, SIB gathers more than 50 research and service groups and above 650 scientists. This explains why the institute can provide such a wide range of expertise to life science researchers and why more and more research groups in the academy and the industry are seeking SIB’s collaboration. Most recent examples include the collaboration with Genesupport for the development of the first Swiss non-invasive prenatal test that allows detection of chromosome aberrations. Benoît Dubuis stated to be delighted to present this award to Ron Appel and the SIB because “Ron Appel is leading one of the rare life science organisations which are able to play the role of unifier with so much elegance”.

The challenges our society is facing – health, food and energy production, sustainability and environmental protection – cannot be resolved without bioinformatics expertise and without the SIB. Ron Appel said to be “Proud to receive this Award which honours SIB’s expertise and the contribution of Swiss bioinformaticians to the progress of life science. The SIB can be proud,

as it is a model of inter-cantonal and inter-institutional collaboration. A model which has proven its efficiency and which is used today for the construction of ELIXIR, the European life science infrastructure for biological information”.

About SIB www.isb-sib.ch

SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics is an academic not-for-profit foundation recognized of public utility. It federates bioinformatics activities throughout Switzerland. Its two-fold mission is to provide world-class core bioinformatics resources to the national and international life science research community in key fields such as , and systems biology; as well as to lead and coordinate the field of bioinformatics in Switzerland. It has a long- standing tradition of producing state-of-the-art software for the life science research community, as well as carefully annotated databases. SIB includes 52 world-class research and service groups, which gather more than 650 researchers, in the fields of proteomics, transcriptomics, genomics, systems biology, structural bioinformatics, evolutionary bioinformatics, modelling, imaging, biophysics, and population genetics in Basel, Bern, Fribourg, Geneva, Lausanne, Lugano and Zurich. SIB expertise is widely appreciated and its services are used by life sciences researchers worldwide.

About BioAlps

Founded in 2003, the BioAlps Association is the Life Sciences cluster from Western Switzerland. It is supported by the Cantons of Bern, Fribourg, Vaud, Neuchâtel, Geneva, Valais, Jura and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs. With a mission of promoting the excellence and performance in MedTech and BioTech developments in this cluster at all levels: regionally, nationally and in the international arena, BioAlps is the entry point to a wealth of contacts, knowhow, and knowledge, and provides both personal and institutional support. Everything that BioAlps does is geared towards innovation and nurturing creativity in research, education and business in order to enable novel products and services to reach the market efficiently and quickly. BioAlps organizes events and co-organizes conventions, participates in a number of international events and supports conferences promoting the cluster and offering its members a wealth of networking opportunities.

Contact: Irène Perovsek / Head of Communication SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics Quartier Sorge - Bâtiment Génopode -1015 Lausanne +41 (0)21 692 40 54 /+41 (0)78 876 11 29 [email protected]