The first significant and unexpected discovery of this work was, in 1991, that many genes (at the time, half of the genes) were of completely unknown function. This led him to try to organize bioinformatics in France with the help of several colleagues at universities, CNRS and INRIA, through the creation of a nationwide group, GDR 1029 (1991–1995) and subsequently through the coordination of the bioinformatics programme of the Groupement de Recherche et d'Etudes des Genomes (1992–1996), then at the Comité de Coordination des Sciences du Vivant (1998–2000). Re-sequencing and re-annotation of the B. subtilis genome was completed in 2009 to update the sequence and annotation of this reference genome. In year 2000, Danchin created the HKU-Pasteur Research Centre in Hong Kong, meant to develop microbial genomics in the region, with the help of the Innovation and Technology Commission of the Hong Kong SAR government to develop bioinformatics (programme Biosupport). Danchin is now developing theoretical reflections and experiments in the domain of synthetic biology, trying to make explicit the idea that cells behave as computers (Turing machines) making computers. Together with Victor de Lorenzo, he created the free and open access journal Symplectic Biology, devoted to publishing innovative ideas in systems and synthetic biology. Antoine Danchin is the father of Raphael Danchin. References Selected works The Delphic Boat: What Genomes Tell Us, Translated by Alison Quayle, Harvard University Press, 2003. External links Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique Reference classification of adenylyl cyclases PubMed references (free full text references) AMAbiotics SAS 1944 births French biologists French geneticists French bioinformaticians École Normale Supérieure alumni Members of the French Academy of Sciences Living people Synthetic biologists