Computational Biology Research Group (CBRG) develops tools for studying protein sequence, structure and function relationship. A theoretical analysis of interactions between proteins and other bio macromolecules relays on use of structure descriptors stored in STING_DB and it instigates solution development for problems challenging Brazilian agriculture, life stock as well as in area of medicine. Outstanding among those challenges are drug design for combating Citrus Variegated Chlorosis (CVC), search for increased productivity of lipase's in bio diesel production and also, control of human blood pressure.

•Projects

Products

Our principal product is STING Millennium Suite, a suite of more than 15 different algorithms for structure visualisation, analysis and description. We also offer number of services to general scientific public and specifically to the Structural Molecular Biology Netwark (SMOLBNet), a consorcium of 16 laboratories located in Sao Paulo state, working on common projects whose goal is in deciphering new protein structures.
Our services and products, infrastructure, personal, mirror sites and other interesting information about our activities are best described at our site:

http://www.cbi.cnptia.embrapa.br/SMS/

•Staff

•Infrastructure

Historical Archive

Brazilian Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Network (BMBBnet) is an initiative to develop the Brazilian infrastructure for academic and commercial information services in biotechnology.

The network consists of national central node: Brazilian Bioinformatics Resource Center (BBRC) and already existing network of the Rede Nacional Da Pesquisa.

With the growing importance of biotechnology for agriculture and of genome projects for biotechnology and medicine, the long-range impact of a Bioinformatics Resource in Brazil can be considerable, providing essential information services to the entire national research community in biotechnology in a very cost-effective way.

The BBRC is appropriately staffed and equipped with computing facilities to provide a biocomputing service and to develop network-based services within the country.

The BBRC would have one to five persons (progressive rise with the time period of 3 to 5 years) and access to computer resources (CPU time, disk storage, network connections). The BBRC would provide on-line service and data distribution to academic and industrial research sites in Brazil, initially a few sites, to grow steadily in time with the growth of biotechnology.

BBRC act both as a database supplier and coordinator of the BMBB network development.

The primary purpose of the Brazilian Bioinfomatics Resource Center is to disseminate the best of currently available computational technology in molecular biology to the Brazilian research community.

The explosion in data as a result of research in molecular biology has a major impact on research and development in

a) chemical,
b) pharmaceutical,
c) biotechnological,
d) medical and
e) agricultural

technology. Computer access to the underlying databases is becoming increasingly important, and the requirement for comprehensive information services is well-recognised throughout the world . These services should be coordinated within Brazil, and a clear interface should exist to enable other initiatives, notably in the Europe, USA and Japan, to collaborate efficiently. A wide range of databases should be made available throughout Brazil. Current important databases include information on:

1) gene and genomic sequences of proteins and nucleic acids,
2) structures of biological macromolecules,
3) microbial strains,
4) restriction enzymes,
5) cloning vectors,
6) taxonomic classification,
7) toxicological data, and
8) abstracts from biological journals.

The Brazilian Bioinformatics Resource Center bring about closer collaboration of the various scientific groups in area of biotechnology by the nature of the service offered and by organizing courses on national level (to be expanded to Latin American countries), all with the support of EMBL personal.

We are building the biotechnology information system. The information systems are the way to talk to each other (national groups and international ones as well).

1. BBRC provides on-line access to he EMBL protein and nucleic acid sequence data banks, and computational assistance to molecular biologists in Brazil.

2. BBRC promote rapid sharing of information and collaboration among the Brazilian biotechnology research groups through electronic bulletin boards and electronic mail.

3. BBRC serve as the focal point for sharing a public domain software of interest for biotechnology.

Structure of BBNet
The Brazilian Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Network (BMBBnet) is based on a Rede Nacional de Pesquisa network. The national node: Brazilian Bioinformatics Resource Center (BBRC) provide a biocomputing service for its user community. BBRC acts as both network coordinator and a database supplier. The network must remain accessible to commercial as well as academic users.

Some of the outstanding advantages of a centralized data network are:

A large pool of expertise can be brought to bear on data flow, research and communication problems in a coordinated yet diversified fashion.
In the future, BBRC might grow to a Latin American Central Node. The user community varies from one country to the next, due to language and cultural differences, differences in national computer networks and local facilities. National and regional centers linked to a central node can specifically address these issues. Special attention can be focussed on the technologically less developed regions.
Remote login across international boundaries is costly and difficult. A system which enables users to retrieve and submit data from a computer within the same country is simpler and cheaper.
User Support On-site, electronic mail and telephone user support should be provided, and training courses in the use of molecular biology databases and software organised.

BB Network Activities
Data Distribution
EMBL distributes complete releases of all data several times each year on mass storage media such as magnetic tape or CD-ROM. New and updated data from EMBL will be transferred daily from EMBL to BBRC node. We should be therefore supplied with the most comprehensive collection of sequence data. Similar mechanisms could be useful for distribution of other databases.
Data Entry
Systems for the the electronic submission of data to the EMBL Data Library and other database groups should be supported.
Computer Conferencing System
The development of a bulletin-board and conferencing system on the network will provide the vehicle for information exchange between all network partners. To be effective, this must involve relevant research topics and be easily accessible to laboratory scientists on the computers they commonly use for their work.

How to access:
The services offered by BBRC are free of charge and can be accessed by all Internet users. Those who are not members of the Internet, can use the local "packet switching network" facilities. For details, please contact respective telecomunication agencies.

By logging-in as anonymous at sparagin.cenargen.embrapa.br the user will find further information about BMBBNet on BBRC Gopher. In order to get your account operational at BBRC, please send your request to bbrc@cenargen.embrapa.br. Upon registration, the user will get the BBRC complete instruction manual.

A minimum equipment necessary for computer communication:
- a computer (either a PC, a Macintosh or a workstation)
- a communication software (Kermit, for example).
- a modem, operating at a 9600 baud rate.

On-line support!
BBRC offers on-line help on software utilization. Support will be also available by telephone, fax or electronic mail!

Systems for interactive access to remote facilities should be developed, for example: access to specialised hardware and software, database hosts, software collections or other resources.