Researchers at the Computational Biology Research Center (top) are joining those at Kyoto University's bioinformatics centre in Japan's drive towards computational biology. Credit: CBRC

Well-trained bioinformatics specialists in Japan are not just rare — they are virtually non-existent. This is partly because of a lack of formal education in the subject, and the problem is systemic. With little formal recognition of bioinformatics as a field, graduate departments have until recently allocated only a limited number of students to existing bioinformatics teachers. The government recognized the need for more bioinformaticians as it scaled up the country's genomics efforts.

This year, Japan's Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture started to upgrade bioinformatics education at national universities by creating additional staff positions and funding both undergraduate courses and graduate-level informatics training.

Kyoto University's new bioinformatics centre is a product of this new policy. The university is Japan's leading academic centre for bioinformatics research, but until a few months ago all its bioinformatics activities were concentrated in just one laboratory: Minoru Kanehisa's lab at the Institute for Chemical Research.

Tokyo University also plans to increase its bioinformatics education and training activities. And the private Keio University has set up a whole new campus focusing on systems biology and the dynamic modelling of biological systems such as human blood cells.

Minoru Kanehisa: an early advocate of bioinformatics.

Part of the ministry's promotion and coordination fund, the programme will provide between US$1 million and US$2 million in additional funding over several years for undergraduate and graduate education in bioinformatics, systems biology, protein functional analysis and software development. Four institutions will receive grants: Tokyo and Keio universities, the Nara Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, and the Computational Biology Research Center at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.

“The Japanese government has recognized the need for more bioinformatics training and I welcome the new activities,” says Toru Yao, a bioinformatics consultant at RIKEN, the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research. “But I wonder a little whether this all isn't just too late.”

Both the short-term manpower shortage in industry and the longer-term training issues in academia need to be addressed, says Takashi Gojobori, who directs bioinformatics activities at the National Institute of Genetics and at the newly created Japan Biological Information Research Centre (a genomics and bioinformatics effort funded by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry). “There is an urgent need to train bioinformatics applications specialists,” says Gojobori, “but we also have to think about how to best educate the next generation of bioinformatics leaders in Japan.”

Takashi Gojobori says training is urgently needed.

Although funding for academic bioinformatics programmes is on the rise, Japan suffers from a serious lack of qualified specialists who can teach bioinformatics courses at either undergraduate or graduate level. Gojobori says there is little choice other than to mobilize all available resources.

“Computational biology is a broad field,” says Gojobori, “and there are many scientists who know some small part of it, but little else. A well-designed curriculum could help us to get around the staff limitations that we are facing.”

Web links

Bioinformatics Centre, Kyoto University → http://kanehisa.kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp

Computational Biology Research Center → http://www.cbrc.jp

National Institute of Genetics → http://www.nig.ac.jp/home.html

Human Genome Center, University of Tokyo → http://www.hgc.ims.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Keio University → http://www.bioinfo.sfc.keio.ac.jp/IAB