# EMBnet

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The **European Molecular Biology network** (**EMBnet**) is an international scientific network and interest group that aims to enhance [bioinformatics](/source/Bioinformatics) services by bringing together bioinformatics expertises and capacities.[1] On 2011 EMBnet has 37 nodes spread over 32 countries. The nodes include bioinformatics related [university](/source/University) departments, research institutes and national service providers.

## Operations

The main task of most EMBnet nodes is to provide their national scientific community with access to [bioinformatics databanks](/source/Bioinformatics_databanks), specialised [software](/source/Software) and sufficient computing resources and expertise. EMBnet is also working in the fields of bioinformatics training and [software development](/source/Software_development). Examples of software created by EMBnet members are: [EMBOSS](/source/EMBOSS), wEMBOSS,[2] [UTOPIA](/source/UTOPIA_(Bioinformatics_tools)).

EMBnet represents a wide user group and works closely together with the database producers such as EMBL's [European Bioinformatics Institute](/source/European_Bioinformatics_Institute) (EBI), the [Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics](/source/Swiss_Institute_of_Bioinformatics) ([Swiss-Prot](/source/Swiss-Prot)), the [Munich Information Center for Protein Sequences](/source/Munich_Information_Center_for_Protein_Sequences) (MIPS), in order to provide a uniform coverage of services throughout [Europe](/source/Europe). EMBnet is registered in the [Netherlands](/source/Netherlands) as a public foundation ([Stichting](/source/Stichting)).

Since its creation in 1988, EMBnet has evolved from an informal network of individuals in charge of maintaining [biological databases](/source/Biological_databases) into the only worldwide organization bringing bioinformatics professionals to work together to serve the expanding fields of [genetics](/source/Genetics) and [molecular biology](/source/Molecular_biology). Although composed predominantly of academic nodes, EMBnet gains an important added dimension from its industrial members. The success of EMBnet is attracting increasing numbers of organizations outside [Europe](/source/Europe) to join.

EMBnet has a tried-and-tested infrastructure to organise training courses, give technical help and help its members effectively interact and respond to the rapidly changing needs of biological research in a way no single institute is able to do.

In 2005 the organization created additional types of node to allow more than one member per country. The new category denomination is "associated node".

## Coordination and organization

EMBnet is governed by the Annual General Meetings (AGM), and is coordinated by an executive board (EB) that oversees the activities of three project committees:

- Education and Training committee (E&T). Educational support includes a series of courses organised in the member countries and languages, the committee works as well on the continued development of on-line accessible education materials.
- Publicity and Public Relations committee (P&PR). This committee is responsible for promoting any type of EMBnet activities, for the advertisement of products and services provided by the EMBnet community, as well as for proposing and developing new strategies aiming to enhance EMBnet's visibility, and to take care of public relationships with EMBnet communities and related networks/societies.
- Technical Manager committee (TM). The TM PC provides assistance and practical help to the participating nodes and their users.

## Achievements

EMBnet had the first [gopher](/source/Gopher_(protocol)) and [World Wide Web](/source/World_Wide_Web) servers in [biology](/source/Biology) (CSC BioBox)

EMBnet was the first to come up with solutions for daily database updates using Internet (NDT), distributed computing (HASSLE) and efficient database browsing and linking (Sequence Retrieval System, SRS).

The Ping project was created as a means to obtain continuous information about network efficiency across the whole of [Europe](/source/Europe).

EMBnet is committed to bringing the latest software [algorithms](/source/Algorithm) to the user free of charge (Extended [GCG](/source/GCG_(software)) or EGCG[3]) and continues to develop state of the art public software ([EMBOSS](/source/EMBOSS)).

[EMBER](https://web.archive.org/web/20060615074036/http://bioinf.man.ac.uk/dbbrowser/ember/): a European Multimedia Bioinformatics Educational Resource. EMBER was a European Union (EU) funded project aiming to develop a suite of [multimedia](/source/Multimedia) bioinformatics educational tools [4] . [EMBER](https://web.archive.org/web/20080228132146/http://www.ember.man.ac.uk/login.php) comprises a self-contained, [interactive](/source/Interactive) [Web tutorial](/source/Web_tutorial) in bioinformatics, & the equivalent stand-alone course on [CD-ROM](/source/CD-ROM).

The EMBnet community was involved in the creation of the peer reviewed journal [Briefings in Bioinformatics](/source/Briefings_in_Bioinformatics) (BiB). BiB was also supported by an educational grant from EMBnet.

The [Global Organisation for Bioinformatics Learning, Education and Training (GOBLET)](/source/GOBLET_(organization)) was formed as a nonprofit foundation at the 2012 EMBnet annual meeting.[5][6]

## Journal

Starting from 1994 and up to 2009 EMBnet published *EMBnet.news*.[7] Its primary goal was to bring information and report on the latest news and developments from the network to the user community.

Established in 2010 as the successor of the *EMBnet.news* (with volume numbering continuing uninterrupted), *EMBnet.journal* is a [peer-reviewed](/source/Peer_review) [open access](/source/Open_access) [scientific journal](/source/Scientific_journal) publishing original research and technical papers in [bioinformatics](/source/Bioinformatics).[8][9] The journal contains two main sections, one for research articles, reviews, and technical notes, and one for non-peer-reviewed commentary, reportage, user-guides, training information, and news. *EMBnet.journal* publishes also conference proceedings and meeting abstracts as supplements.

## References

1. Domenica D'Elia; Andreas Gisel; Nils-Einar Eriksson; Sophia Kossida; Kimmo Mattila; Lubos Klucar; & Erik Bongcam-Rudloff (2009). "The 20th anniversary of EMBnet: 20 years of bioinformatics for the Life Sciences community". *BMC Bioinformatics*. **10** (Suppl 6): S1. [doi:10.1186/1471-2105-10-S6-S1](https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2105-10-S6-S1). [PMC 2697632](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2697632). [PMID 19534734](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19534734)

1. Martín Sarachu & Marc Colet (2005). "wEMBOSS: a web interface for EMBOSS". *Bioinformatics*. **21** (4): 540–541. [doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/bti031](https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/bti031). [PMID 15388516](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15388516)

1. ["EGCG 8.0"](http://cmgm.stanford.edu/EGCGdoc/egcg.html). *cmgm.stanford.edu*

1. T.K.Attwood; I.Selimas; R.Buis; R.Altenburg; R.Herzog; V.Ledent; V.Ghita; P.Fernandes; I.Marques; M.Brugman (2005). ["Report on the EMBER project - a European Multimedia Bioinformatics Educational Resource"](http://www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/journal/vol6/Beej-6-4.aspx). *Bioscience Education e-Journal*. **6-4**. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20111209070621/http://www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/journal/vol6/Beej-6-4.aspx) 2011-12-09 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2011-11-24.

1. ["GOBLET | EMBnet"](http://www.embnet.org/goblet). *www.embnet.org*. Retrieved 26 August 2016.

1. Atwood, Teresa K.; Bongcam-Rudloff, Erik; Brazas, Michelle E.; Corpas, Manuel; Gaudet, Pascale; Lewitter, Fran; Mulder, Nicola; Palagi, Patricia M.; Schneider, Maria Victoria; van Gelder, Celia W. G.; Welch, Lonnie (9 April 2015). "GOBLET: The Global Organisation for Bioinformatics Learning, Education and Training". *PLOS Computational Biology*. **11** (4). [Bibcode:2015PLSCB..11E4143A](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015PLSCB..11E4143A). [doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004143](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004143). [PMC 4391932](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4391932). [PMID 25856076](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25856076)

1. ["Archives"](http://journal.embnet.org/index.php/embnetnews/issue/archive). *journal.embnet.org*

1. Domenica D'Elia; Andreas Gisel; Nils-Einar Eriksson; Sophia Kossida; Kimmo Mattila; Lubos Klucar; & Erik Bongcam-Rudloff (2009). "The 20th anniversary of EMBnet: 20 years of bioinformatics for the Life Sciences community". *BMC Bioinformatics*. **10** (Suppl 6): S1. [doi:10.1186/1471-2105-10-S6-S1](https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2105-10-S6-S1). [PMC 2697632](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2697632). [PMID 19534734](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19534734)

1. Dublin, Matthew. ["EMBnet.news Morphs into New Bioinformatics Journal"](http://www.genomeweb.com/blog/embnetnews-morphs-new-bioinformatics-journal). genomeweb.com. Retrieved 14 January 2013.

## External links

- [Official website](http://www.embnet.org/)
- [EMBER](https://web.archive.org/web/20071230101321/http://www.ember.man.ac.uk/)
- [EMBnet.Journal](http://journal.embnet.org)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [EMBnet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMBnet) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMBnet?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.