History

Sydney Bioinformatics was established in 2007 through the merger of the Sydney University Biological Informatics and Technology Centre (SUBIT) and the Australian Genomic Information Centre (AGIC).

The Sydney University Biological Informatics and Technology Centre (SUBIT) was established in 2001 to promote bioinformatics research at the University of Sydney through IT-enhanced analysis of data from the life science area. It focused on interdisciplinary collaborations and research, involving the computational, mathematical, physical and statistical sciences along with the various life sciences (e.g. biology, biochemistry, microbiology, medicine, veterinary science, plant science, pharmacology and pharmacy).

The Directors of SUBIT included Professor Anthony Larkum and Dr Lars Jermiin.

The Australian Genomic Information Centre was established on August 5, 1991 to manage the Australian National Genomic Information Service (ANGIS).

The origins of ANGIS lie with Professor Trevor Cole, Dr Alex Reisner, and Professor Peter Reeves. In April 1990, with the support of six biomedical departments of the University, and with the intention to create a nationally accessible service of databases and analytical software to assist Australian molecular biologists and biotechnologists, the Sydney University Sequence Analysis Interface (SUSAI) was established.

In December 1990, the University of Sydney was chosen by DITAC to transform SUSAI into the National Genomic Information Service (NGIS) with the development of lecture and practical teaching material to facilitate the use of SUSAI.

In 1991, AGIC was formally constituted by the University of Sydney as the organisation with the responsibility for managing ANGIS.