Bioinformatics Biocomputing - Ercim

SPECIAL THEME: BIOCOMPUTING
The European Molecular Computing Consortium
by Grzegorz Rozenberg
The rapidly expanding research on DNA Computing
in the US and in Japan has already been channelled
there into national projects with very substantial
financial support. The growth of DNA Computing in
Europe has been somewhat slower, although a
number of European researchers have participated in
the development of DNA Computing from the very
The EMCC is a scientific organisation of
researchers in DNA Computing and is
composed of national groups from 11
European countries. The EMCC activities
are coordinated by the EMCC Board
consisting of: Grzegorz Rozenberg (The
Netherlands) - director, Martyn Amos
(United Kingdom) - deputy director,
Giancarlo Mauri (Italy) - secretary, and
Marloes Boon-van der Nat (The
Netherlands) - administrative secretary.
The purpose of the EMCC is best
expressed in its official document ‘Aims
and Visions’ which now follows.
Molecular computing is a novel and
exciting development at the interface of
Computer Science and Molecular
Biology. Computation using DNA or
proteins, for example, has the potential
for massive parallelism, allowing trillions
of operations per second. Such a parallel
molecular computer will have huge
implications, both for theoreticians and
practitioners. Traditional definitions of
computation are being re-defined in the
light of recent theoretical and
experimental developments. Although
thriving, the field of molecular computing
is still at an early stage in its development,
and a huge and concerted effort is
required to assess and exploit its real
potential.
The European Molecular Computing
Consortium has been created in order to
co-ordinate, foster and expand research
in this exciting new field, especially in
Europe. The EMCC is the result of
discussions between different research
groups in nine different European
countries. A key function of the
consortium is to foster co-operation
between scientific, technological and
industrial partners. A particular effort will
be made to create genuinely multi-
disciplinary co-operation between
Computer Science, Molecular Biology,
and other relevant scientific areas. The
EMCC will organize various researchenhancing
activities such as conferences,
workshops, schools, and mutual visits that
will provide forums for the exchange of
results, and for establishing or
strengthening existing co-operations in
the field of molecular computing. The
EMCC will also actively seek to promote
the field, both within the scientific
community and to the public at large, via
scientific publications, seminars,
workshops and public lectures. All
participating sites will make the utmost
effort to develop their theoretical and
laboratory resources. It is hoped that all
of these combined efforts will allow the
beginning of this research area. In 1998 a number of
research groups in Europe took the initiative to create
the European Molecular Computing Consortium
(EMCC) officially established in July 1998 during the
DNA Computing Days organized by the Leiden Center
for Natural Computing in Leiden.
Countries currently participating in the European Molecular Computing Consortium.
field of molecular computing to thrive in
Europe.
The EMCC will also strive to establish
and maintain fruitful cooperation with
researchers in the area of molecular
computing from outside Europe, and in
particular with the project ‘Consortium
for Biomolecular Computing’ in the US
and with the Japanese ‘Molecular
Computer Project’.
Links:
EMCC web page:
http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/~emcc/
Please contact:
Grzegorz Rozenberg – Leiden Center for
Natural Computing, Leiden University
Tel: +31 71 5277061/67
E-mail: rozenber@liacs.nl
32 ERCIM News No. 43, October 2000
Graphic: Danny van Noort, GMD