Major biotech companies and their chiefs will converge in Bangalore in mid-January, 2001 for the International Symposium on Bioinformatics and Genomics. The event is organised by AstraZeneca India Pvt. Ltd., the research arm of the AstraZeneca, [a Swedish-British tie-up, the world's fifth largest pharma company] and is sponsored by the department of information technology, government of Karnataka, Biocon India Ltd. and Confederation of Indian Industries.

The three-day meet -- from January 15 to 17, 2001 -- is being held to bring the latest developments to the scientific, industrial and investment community in Karnataka and it will provide an opportunity to stimulate entrepreneurial activity said Dr. Anand Kumar, director AstraZeneca Research Foundation.

The focus of the meet will cover the rapid developments in the analysis of microbial and human genes [genomics] as well as the analysis of gene products and their expression [preteomics]. The conference will benefit senior scientists, project leaders, decision makers in life sciences sector, pharmaceuticals, information technology financial institutes and research centres, according to the organisers.

The speakers at the symposium have been drawn from research and development companies engaged in cutting edge research as well as from academic institutes. They include professors from Massachusetts Institute of Technology [MIT] and California Institute of Technology Pasadena, US CEOs of Spotfire, Proteome and Base4 Bioinformatics, Dr. Woodwork of Astra Zeneca UK are among the others to address the sessions.

In the session on IT and life sciences, speakers will include Charles Cooney from MIT, Dr. Mathew Woodwark, global co-ordinator of informatics training awareness and utilisation, AstraZeneca, UK, Dr. Stephen Gardner, Chief Technical Officer, Viaken Systems, USA, Dr. Nancy Grove, chief medical officer Surromed, USA.

The deliberation on information management in biotechnology will be chaired by Dr. Narayana Murthy, chairman Infosys Technologies. The other main speakers will be Dr. Christopher Ahlberg, CEO, Spotfire, US, Dr. James Garrels, president ad CEO, Proteome, US, Dr. Martin Sumner-Smith, president and CEO Base$ Bioinformatics, Canada, Dr. Scout Kahn, vice president, life sciences research and development, Molecular Simulations, US.

An area which is catching up today is genomics. So there is also a dedicated session covering genomics and its impact on biotechnology, by Dr. V N Balaji, DSQ Software and chair the topic 'Integration of genomics into life sciences research and development.' Noted biotechnologist, Dr. Sharat Chandra who is to head the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Information [IBAI coming at Whitefield near Bangalore this month, will be present along with speakers: Dr. C Victor Jongeneel, director, Ludwig Institute, Switzerland, Dr. Samir Brahmachari, director, Centre for Biochemical Technology, New Delhi and Dr. Eric Eastman, senior vice president, Genie Logic, US.

The head of AstraZeneca India, discovery department, Dr. T Balaganesh will speak on the advanced technologies in gene discovery. S Chandrashekaran, deputy controller, patent office, New Delhi will handle the session on intellectual property and human resources, Dr. Paula E Stephen, Georgia State University, Atlanta, US will also present a paper on the gene discovery.