Call for Papers and Posters Personal Genomics  Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing Session January 4-8, 2010 Fairmont Orchid Resort The Big Island of Hawaii, U.S.A.

Motivation      

Recent improvements in sequencing methods and other genotyping assays introduced high-throughput, low-cost and more automated technologies. The revolution in DNA sequencing opened many possibilities for researchers working in the fields of genetic variation, diseases of genomic origin, and even personalized medicine. The new technologies can also be employed to discover functional landscape of the human genome as part of the ENCODE Project; such as epigenetic variation (methylation patterns and histone modification) and protein-DNA interaction. Further uses of the high-throughput sequencing technologies include transcriptome analysis, non-coding RNA discovery, gene expression profiling, rapid testing of genotype-phenotype associations, and identification of pathogens.

Our genetic identity not only determines our physical differences, but it also defines our susceptibility against diseases. Several groups are now working on various methods to exploit the power of cost efficient technologies to better perform genotype-phenotype associations, in particular to identify susceptibility to disease, and eventually diagnose disease at its early stages. The ultimate goal is to vastly improve the field of pharmacogenomics, which can broadly be defined as the study of the relationship between genotype and drug response and how the drugs affect our metabolism. The wealth of new data gives many opportunities to advance our understanding of how to optimize drug combinations for each individual’s genetic makeup. The underlying computational tools for such studies analyze available data to identify differences between a reference genome and sequenced genomes, and perform clustering and classification to obtain both normal and disease-related phenotype associations.

This session focuses on the development of novel computational methods in all aspects of Personal Genomics including genetic and epigenetic variation discovery, genotype-phenotype associations, indexing and cataloguing both normal and disease-related variation, exome capture and resequencing, and personalized medicine. This session has a broad target audience that includes algorithm developers working on sequence analysis, genomics researchers, pharmacogeneticists, and medical geneticists.

Session Topics

Session Co-Chairs