Mission and Activities

• Japan Biological Informatics Consortium (JBIC) is undertaking cutting-edge research and development (R&D) as a participant of the national projects in the field of life science in accordance with the Science and Technology Basic Plan established by the Cabinet in cooperation with industry, academia, and government.
• The participating parties are private companies from the pharmaceutical, information technology (IT), food, chemistry, and diagnostics industries, universities such as the University of Tokyo, Nagoya University, and Fukushima Medical University, as well as public research organizations such as the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and the National Cancer Center. JBIC is coordinating research activities among these industries, universities, and public research organizations.
• JBIC strives to achieve scientific breakthroughs by fusing IT with biotechnology

History

• JBIC was organized and initiated research activities in 1998, and was then established as a non-profit organization in July 2000 under the control of four ministries, including the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
• The establishment of JBIC coincided with the historical announcement by the former U.S. president Bill Clinton that a draft sequence of the human genome had been completed, a major milestone in biotechnology and bioinformatics in human history.
• At the time of establishment, JBIC focused on the structural and functional analysis of proteins and database-related projects. In recent years, JBIC has implemented R&D related to translational research, liquid biopsy, genomic medicine, immunity, etc., as national projects in collaboration with industry, academia, and government.