020.18: Molecular Biology: ICGEBnet by Sandor Pongor, Gyorgy Simon and Arturo Falaschi The International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) is an institute operated by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization to help developing countries strengthen their research abilities in molecular biology and to provide information on various biotech-related issues such as biosafety and patenting. ICGEB has two research components, situated in Trieste, Italy and New Delhi, India. One of the fundamental tools in molecular biology is access to gene sequence databases. Mega-projects, such as the sequencing of the human genome in the US, are pouring data into the databanks. Every time a new gene or protein sequence is determined experimentally, researchers must search these databanks for similar sequences. This task is far beyond the reach of small computers and is best done by using centralized computer resources such as maintained by EMBL (the European Molecular Biology Laboratory) in Europe or GenBank in the US. In addition to access to the databases, these systems provide services such as electronic mail, bulletin boards, and access to file archives. ICGEB provides a similar resource for developing countries. ICGEBnet provides on-line access to the major sequence data banks, including the EMBL nucleic acid sequence databank which is updated daily. ICGEBnet is a node of EMBnet, the informatics network of the European Molecular Biology Organization. In addition to the EMBL data bank, ICGEB supports a wide variety of other data resources, such as the HIV sequence databases HIV-NA and HIV-AA, the Japanese Protein Research Foundation's protein sequence database SEQDB, and the SBASE protein domain library (developed at ICGEB). On-line software includes packages for representing and manipulating nucleic acid and protein sequence data, as well as FASTA and TFASTA for sequence similarity searching, and CLUSTAL for multiple sequence alignment. Other utilities include electronic mail, a bulletin board, and the gopher service. Access to ICGEBnet resources is available to all ICGEB member country scientists; however, preference will be given to those scientists whose research is directly related to the research goals of ICGEB. The principal mechanism for remote access to the ICGEBnet is via the Italian ITAPAC X.25 PDN, permitting up to 16 simultaneous incoming connections. In addition, ICGEBnet can also be accessed over the Internet via the International Centre for Theoretical Physics. At the end of 1991, ICGEBnet had 300 registered users. ICGEBnet also serves as a training facility. The system is used extensively during the 15 or so ICGEB courses organized yearly, two of which are usually dedicated to computer applications. A computer lab at ICGEB can host up to 25 students. ICGEBnet is maintained by ICGEB's Computer Services in collaboration with ICGEB's Protein Structure and Function Group. The joint research is focused on search methods for distant protein sequence homologies. (S.P. is Head of Protein Structure/Function Group, G.S. is Systems Manager and A.F. is General Director, ICGEB, Padriciano 99, Area di Ricerca, 34012 Trieste, Italy)