Brazilian Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Network   
                           (BMBBNet)

     Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture/Brazilian Agriculture
Research Corporation (EMBRAPA)/Genetic Resource and Biotechnology
Center (CENARGEN) and the Brazilian Ministry of Science and
Technology/National Research Council (CNPq)/National Computer
Network for Research (RNP), have announced formation of the
Brazilian Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Network (BMBBNet)
during the XXII annual meeting of the "Sociedade Brasileira de
Bioquimica e Biologia Molecular " in Caxambu - Minas Gerais -
Brazil.
     BMBBnet is an initiative to develop the Brazilian
infrastructure for academic and commercial  information services in
molecular biology and biotechnology.
     With the growing importance of biotechnology for agriculture
and of genome projects for biotechnology and medicine, the long-
range impact of a Bioinformatics Resource in Brazil can be
considerable, providing essential information services to the
entire national research community in biotechnology in a very cost-
effective way. 
     The network consists of a national central node: Brazilian
Bioinformatics Resource Center (BBRC) and already existing network
(Internet) of the RNP. The latter functions as the backbone network
connecting various state capitals. 
     
Network Activities 
  
o  Data Distribution 
   In collaboration with the EMBL-Heidelberg the BBRC will receive
the daily updates of the EMBL data bases. The BBRC should be
therefore supplied with the most comprehensive collection of
sequence data and it is furthermore licensed by the EMBL to
distribute its data-bases to local state nodes within Brazil and
also, to all interested Latin American countries. Similar
mechanisms could be useful for distribution of other databases. 
A computational assistance to molecular biologists in Brazil will
be also provided.
  
o  Computer Conferencing System 
   The development of a bulletin-board and conferencing system, as
well as a biotechnology discussion list (bbrc-l) on the network
will provide the vehicle for information exchange between all
network partners. To be effective, this will involve relevant
research topics and will be easily accessible to laboratory
scientists on the computers they commonly use for their work. 
  
o  Access to Remote Facilities 
   Systems for interactive access to remote facilities should be
developed, for example:  access to specialized hardware and
software, database hosts,  software collections or other resources.

o  Training 
   Where necessary, training for variety of potential users should
be arranged. Possible topics include the installation and support
of particular software packages and technical networking issues.
Full participation of the EMBL technical staff is guaranteed.  


     All information on BMBBNet and the BBRC is available through
the on-line information server "gopher". 
     Interested laboratories could contact the BBRC using E-mail
address: 
                    bbrc@cenargen.embrapa.br
or write to:

Dr. Goran Neshich
BMBBNet coordinator
EMBRAPA/CENARGEN
P.O.Box 02.372
70879-970 Brasilia - DF, Brazil
phone: +55 61 272-3212
fax:   +55 61 274-3212