BioAfrica - Website Report 2003 by Tulio de Oliveira.

BioAfrica website Report 2003:

By Tulio de Oliveira, BioAfrica main developer, Molecular Virology and Bioinformatics Units, Africa Centre/University of Natal, Durban

We initiated the development of the BioAfrica website two years ago (Dec 2001).The website is designed to complement the work of the Bioinformatics and Molecular Virology Unit of the Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies. The BioAfrica website was developed to be a resource centre for HIV genetic analysis concentrating HIV-1 subtype C information in Southern Africa. The website has several different parts and contains much relevant information used for HIV sequence analysis.

Since its creation, the website has grown both in size and functionality and presently contains many useful resources and much relevant information for HIV sequence analysis. For example, the website contains information on the distribution of HIV-1 subtypes in Africa and distributes the integrated sequence analysis system for HIV-1 based on the Genetic data Environment (GDE) software. It also hosts the first web-based HIV proteomics and structural genomics resource worldwide. In addition, the website is used to share information gained through HIV research and its members are involved in organization and presentation of high level bioinformatics workshops both locally in South Africa and other countries.

Development and Achievements in 2003

In 2003 the BioAfrica website received up to date 110.000 accessions
The GDE for Linux and Mac OS X program was published in the bioinformatics journal and downloaded 520 times from research institutes around the world.

Top International Websites Currently Hosting Links to BioAfrica:

The Los Alamos HIV Sequence Database website.
Stanford HIV Drug Resistance website.
The Phylogenetic Handbook website.
The Evolutionary group at Oxford.
Jim Mullins Laboratoryat University of Washington.
Many, many more links can be detected through a google search.

The BioAfrica website is continually being upgraded and developed by members of the Africa Centre Bioinformatics Unit. Furthermore, there has been extensive collaboration with other research institutes on an international and a national level. One of our national contributors is Dr Chris Seebregts from the South African Medical Research Council. The site has grown through international collaboration with a number of different institues including: Prof. Annemieke VanDamme group from the Leuven Catolic University in Belgium, Dr. Eric W. Linton, Michigan State University, USA., Dr. Marco Salemi and Prof. Walter Fitch from the University of California-Irvine, USA..

In conclusion, I would like to thank people for all the comments, suggestions and visits to the site. We look forward to another productive, exiting year in 2004, which brings growth, development with the pupose of uniting researches in the search for information to combat the tragic HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa.

The BioAfrica web site is maintained by: Dr. Tulio de Oliveira,