On May 9th, the inaugural virtual meeting of the Pasteur Asia-Pacific International Bioinformatics Initiative (PAPIBI) was held. 

Seven scientists from 4 countries (Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and South Korea) participated to the event, including Dr. Soojin Jang, Head of the Antibacterial Resistance Laboratory of Institut Pasteur Korea, Dr. Nguyen Bao Trieu, Head of Microbiology and Immunology department of Pasteur Institute in Nha Trang, Dr. Huynh Kim Mai and Vu Thi Ngoc of the Microbiology and Immunology department at Pasteur Institute in Nha Trang, Dr. Chittaphone Vanhnollat, Group Leader of Pathogen Discovery at Institut Pasteur du Laos,  Dr. Praveen Rahi, of the Medical Biology Laboratory of Institut Pasteur du Cambodge, and the coordinator of the meeting, Dr. Giorgio Gonnella, Head of the Bioinformatics and AI Applications unit of Institut Pasteur du Cambodge. 

During the meeting participants exchanged information about the bioinformatics activities in the respective institutes and started defining goals and future plans of the initiative. 

Additionally, scientists from the Institut Pasteur of New Caledonia, sent a slide with information on their bioinformatics activities and will join future meetings.

The PAPIBI initiative, coordinated by Dr. Giorgio Gonnella of IPC, is designed to reinforce Bioinformatics capacity across the Asia-Pacific region. Open to all research institutes in the Pasteur Network within this area, the program offers a platform for scholarly exchange, mutual support, and knowledge sharing. PAPIBI also serves as a catalyst for future research collaborations and actively promotes capacity building through joint training courses and the facilitation of staff and student mobility programs across the network.