A review of bioinformatics education in the UK

If the completion of the first draft of the human genome represents the coming of age of bioinformatics, then the emergence of bioinformatics as a university degree subject represents its establishment. In this paper bioinformatics as a subject for formal study is discussed, rather than as a subject for research, and a selection of the taught, mainly graduate, courses currently available in the UK are reviewed. Throughout, the author tries to draw parallels between the integration of bioinformatics into biomedical research and teaching today, and that of molecular biology, two decades ago. Others have made this analogy between these two relatively young disciplines. Although research sources are referenced, the author makes no pretence of objectivity. This article contains his opinions, and those of a number of current bioinformatics course organisers whose comments on the subject were solicited in advance specifically for this paper. The course organisers kindly advised how they planned their curricula, and described the special strengths of their programmes. Comments from present and former students of several bioinformatics degree programmes were also solicited. Except where individuals are directly quoted, any opinions expressed herein should be considered the author's. Compared with its sister piece [Marion Zatz, in previous issue of Briefings in Bioinformatics pp. 353], this paper is less about funding policy--which, in the UK, has lately (if belatedly) been more generous towards bioinformatics teaching--than it is about practice and content; the requirements of the bioinformatics research communities, the corresponding emphases of bioinformatics courses, and the general market for holders of bioinformatics degrees. Individual courses are cited throughout as examples, but the final section contains a full annotated listing with URL addresses. Based on the author's own experience of practising and teaching bioinformatics, he describes the skills he believes will be most useful to bioinformaticians in the near future and suggests ways to prepare students of bioinformatics for a fall in demand for those abilities.

Studying health in Greenland: obligations and challenges

Health research in Greenland has contributed with several findings of interest for the global scientific community and has documented health problems and risk factors of importance for planning the local health care system. The study of how health develops in small, scattered communities during rapid epidemiological transition carries prospects of global significance. The Inuit are a genetically distinct people living under extreme physical conditions. Their traditional living conditions and diet are currently undergoing a transformation, which may approach their disease pattern to that of the industrialized world, while still including local outbreaks of tuberculosis. Health research in Greenland is logistically difficult and costly, but offers opportunities not found elsewhere in the world. A long tradition of registration enhances the possibilities for research. A number of research institutions in Denmark and Greenland have conducted health research in Greenland for many years in cooperation with, among others, researchers in Canada and Alaska. National and international cooperation is supported by the Danish/Greenlandic Society for Circumpolar Health, the International Union for Circumpolar Health, and the Commission for Research in Greenland. Health news are regularly reported to international and local congresses and to the scientific journals.

The Israel Society for the Prevention of Alcoholism

This paper describes the profile of the Israel Society for the Prevention of Alcoholism (ISPA), which is a nation-wide, public, non-profit association. It portrays various aspects of ISPA treatment and rehabilitation facilities-the residential treatment center, the rehabilitative hostel and the 'warm home' for homeless alcoholics. It depicts ISPA prevention activities, prevention materials and its usage of the media, and deals with ISPA involvement in policy issues. The paper also addresses the research reality of ISPA and its scientific journal, and refers to the society's structure and its future.