Amos Bairoch, professor emeritus at the Faculty of Medicine, passed away suddenly on 29 November. His death deprives science of one of its most innovative minds. A pioneer in proteomics, Amos Bairoch left his mark on the international scientific landscape. After a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Geneva in 1989, he embarked on a series of projects that would revolutionise the study of proteins, notably with Swiss-Prot and PROSITE, two reference databases. He also created PC/Gene, a protein and nucleic acid sequence analysis software used by thousands of laboratories worldwide.

In 1998, together with four colleagues, he founded the SIB – Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, which continues to coordinate the research and support activities in bioinformatics of 87 teams belonging to 26 Swiss academic institutions. And since 2009, CALIPHO, his research group at the Faculty of Medicine, has combined experimental and bioinformatics approaches to study known and unknown human proteins.

Several prestigious distinctions recognised the excellence of his contributions: the Pehr Edman Prize, the European Latsis Prize, the Otto Naegeli Prize and the ABRF Award for Outstanding Contributions to Biomolecular Technologies. Only recently, he received a prestigious award from the International Society of Computational Biology. His commitment was also expressed through teaching and academic life: he served for many years as vice-president of the Section of Fundamental Medicine and as head of the Department of Human Protein Sciences.

Amos Bairoch approached science with communicative joy, where generosity, humour and curiosity were interlinked. Always open-minded and brimming with energy, he also demonstrated frankness and a keen sense of justice, never hesitating to speak up courageously when the situation demanded it. His influence extended far beyond his own projects. A patient mentor and a source of constant ideas, he inspired an entire generation of scientists in bioinformatics. His death leaves an immense void, but his legacy is considerable. The tools he created continue to serve thousands of scientists daily, and the memory of his brilliant mind, pioneering approach and commitment to science will continue to inspire those who had the privilege of working alongside him.