Professor Emeritus Patricia VaryThe joint $630,000 NSF Bacterial Genome Sequencing Project is nearing completion. The project is a collaboration between Pat Vary at NIU and Jacques Ravel at TIGR (now at University of Maryland, Baltimore), as co-principal investigators. The 10X coverage of the bacterial chromosome and all seven of its plasmids has been completed by TIGR and all molecules closed. For the last 2 ½ years, here at NIU, we have been annotating the sequence. Almost 6,000 genes have been detected by computer in the sequences. Using sophisticated software programs, several students and faculty have been analyzing the genes for function by comparing the sequences to those in the world databases. Most of the annotation should be completed by fall. Those faculty most involved in the annotation at NIU besides Professor Vary are Rick Johns, Scott Grayburn, Mel Duvall, and graduate students Janaka Edirisinghe, Kirthi Kutumbaka and Chris Braun. The project has been a source of training in Bioinformatics classes for graduates and undergraduates from the Departments of Biological Sciences, Computer Science, and Statistics. Even one high school student, John Windelborn, annotated 100 genes last summer. A workshop was held for NIU faculty and students last year. Another workshop is planned for high school students and teachers as well as surrounding community college students. The closed sequence is available online at: www.bios.niu.edu/b_megaterium/index.html