● http://s-star.org

If you can't tell your Needleman–Wunsch from your Tulla algorithm, then, like me, this is the web site for you. With lectures on basic to advanced bioinformatics topics, this web-based teaching resource offers hope and enlightenment to the computationally confused.

S-Star is an international alliance of teaching institutions that includes Stanford University, Sydney University and Sweden's Uppsala University. Its goal is to provide a unified, bioinformatics learning environment — comprising institution-approved lectures and courseware in genomics, bioinformatics and medical informatics — to all.

The bioinformatics lectures range from introductory overviews — such as the overview on computationally analysing sequence data — to in-depth presentations on specific topics, for example, on algorithms for computational biology. The lectures vary in length from 40 minutes to over an hour and can be viewed by installing Microsoft's Windows Media Player. A synchronized presentation of the instructor's slides accompanies each video, and a dropdown menu lets you choose between the different topics that are covered. The lectures are not just restricted to DNA-based topics either, but also cover proteomics, and protein structure and prediction.

Another part of the site — Self Tuition — provides worksheets on specific topics and problems to work through. One such worksheet tackles BLAST searches — it provides a sequence for a search and then assesses, through questions, how well you understand the results.

S-Star is clearly at an early stage of development, but has the potential to be a great web resource, providing much-needed tuition and guidance on the fast-evolving field of bioinformatics.