European Bioinformatics Institute /

The European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) is a centre for research and services in bioinformatics, and is part of European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). It is located on the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus in Hinxton, Great Britain. The roots of the EMBL-EBI lie in the EMBL Nucleotide Sequence Data Library (now known as EMBL-Bank), which was established in 1980 at the EMBL laboratories in Heidelberg, Germany and was the world's first nucleotide sequence database. The original goal was to establish a central computer database of DNA sequences, rather than have scientists submit sequences to journals. What began as a modest task of abstracting information from literature soon became a major database activity with direct electronic submissions of data and the need for highly skilled informatics staff. The task grew in scale with the start of the genome projects, and grew in visibility as the data became relevant to research in the commercial sector. It soon became apparent that the EMBL Nucleotide Sequence Data Library needed better financial security to ensure its long-term viability and to cope with the sheer scale of the task. There was also a need for research and