| MSDN | Tel: +44 114 258 3397 |
| 63 Wostenholm Road | Fax: +44 114 258 3402 |
| Sheffield | Email: msdn@sheffield.ac.uk |
| England, UK |
* MSDN is a non-profit organisation providing specialised information and communications services for life scientists worldwide. There is an international Committee of Management and a Secretariat based in Sheffield, UK. MSDN is sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and other organisations.
* MSDN provides access to a unique collection of databases covering microbiology, biotechnology and biodiversity. Many of the databases are derived from the catalogues of microbial culture collections. Several nations are represented, including Russia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, India, Bulgaria, Argentina and UK.
* All databases are available free, through the Internet, on
World Wide Web servers at:
Base de Dados Tropical in Brazil
Bioinformatics DIC in India
World Data Center on Microorganisms in Japan
Microbial Information Network in China
* MSDN has developed a one-week training course to introduce microbiologists to information retrieval and management using computers. This course has been run in many countries in Asia, South America, Africa and Europe, in collaboration with expert trainers from other centres.
* The MSDN Directory of Information Resources is a database of laboratories holding microbial cultures. It indexes around 60 laboratories, using numerical codes (the RKC code) to represent the kinds of strain data that a laboratory records when cataloguing new accessions.
* Other organisations that have provided support for MSDN include the Commission of the European Communities, US National Science Foundation, US Environmental Protection Agency, US Department of Agriculture, US National Institute of Dental Research, Environment Canada, UNIDO, UNESCO.
* Many organisations provide valuable support in kind, particularly the Base de Dados Tropical who have carried out much of the technical development on the Internet. Support is also given by hosts who distribute MSDN databases on their servers, and experts who contribute to the training courses.