Call For Papers, Abstracts and Demonstrations

Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing

Mauni Lani, Big Island, Hawaii - January 4-9, 1999

The fourth Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing (PSB), will be held January 4-9, 1999 on the Big Island of Hawaii. PSB will bring together top researchers from North America, the Asian Pacific nations, Europe and around the world to exchange research results and address open issues in all aspects of computational biology. PSB will provide a forum for the presentation of work in databases, algorithms, interfaces, visualization, modeling and other computational methods, as applied to biological problems, with emphasis on applications in data-rich areas of molecular biology. PSB intends to attract a balanced combination of computer scientists and biologists, presenting significant original research, demonstrating computer systems, and facilitating formal and informal discussions on topics of importance to computational biology.

To provide focus for the very broad area of biological computing, PSB is organized into a series of specific sessions. Each session will involve both formal research presentations and open discussion groups. The 1999 PSB sessions are:

Papers, Abstracts and Demonstrations

The core of the conference consists of rigorously peer-reviewed full-length papers reporting on original work. Accepted papers will be published in a hard-bound archival proceedings, and the best of these will be presented orally to the entire conference. Researchers wishing to present their research without official publication are encouraged to submit a one page abstract, and present their work in discussion, poster and demonstration sessions. Workstations and internet connections will be available for demonstrations. Please submit detailed requests for demonstration facilities along with your paper or abstract.

Important dates

Paper submissions due: July 13, 1998
Notification of paper acceptance: August 22, 1998
Final paper deadline: September 22, 1998
Abstract deadline: October 1, 1998
Meeting: January 4-9, 1999

Paper format

Papers may be up to 12 single spaced pages, and must use our supplied format, available from ftp://ftp-smi.stanford.edu/pub/altman/psb. Each paper must be accompanied by a cover letter stating that it contains original unpublished results not currently under consideration elsewhere and that all co-authors concur with its contents. Please indicate in your cover letter for which specific session (if any) you wish your paper or abstract to be considered. Papers and abstracts may be submitted electronically. Contact Russ Altman (russ.altman@stanford.edu) for additional information.

Submission information

For physical submission, please send five copies of your paper to:

PSB-99
c/o Russ B. Altman
Section on Medical Informatics
SUMC, MSOB X-215
Stanford, CA, USA 94305-5479
(415) 725-0659

Electronic submission of papers and abstracts is encouraged. Contact Dr. Altman for information about electronic submission.

Travel support

We have been able to offer partial travel support to many PSB attendees in the past, including most authors of accepted full papers who request support. However, due to our sponsoring agencies' schedules, we are unable to offer travel awards before the registration (and payment) deadlines for authors. We recognize that this is inconvenient, and we are doing our best to rectify the situation. No one is guaranteed travel support. Travel support applications will be available on the web site soon.

PSB '99 Sessions:

Each session has a chair who is responsible for organizing submissions. Please contact the specific session chair relevant to your interests for further information.

Gene Expression and Genetic Networks

Cochairs: Hiroaki Kitano & Roland Somogyi

Computational methods in the monitoring, analysis, and modeling of RNA and protein expression; gene regulatory network models and new methods of acquiring and analyzing large-scale gene expression data.

Contact:
Roland Somogyi
Phone: +1 (650) 845-4210
Fax: +1 (650) 845-4255
Email: rsomogyi@incyte.com


Data Mining And Discovery In Molecular Databases

Cochairs: Janice Glasgow, Raymond Ng

Autmomated processes for discovery of patterns and motifs in molecular databases to aid in the understanding of relationships among sequence, structure and function.

Contact:
Janice Glasgow
Phone: +1 (613) 545-6058
Fax: +1 (613) 545-6513
Email: janice@qucis.queensu.ca


Computer Modeling in Physiology: From Cell to Tissue

Cochairs: Andrej Bugrim, Joel Keizer, Leon Glass & Art Winfree

The use of advanced computer simulations to elucidate the mechanism underlying quantitative physiological data. Areas of interest include (but are not limited to) signal transduction, metabolic pathways, subcellular compartment models and tissue electrophysiology. Contributions are soliticed from experimental biologyists whose research provides quantitaitve data as well as from theoreticians and computer modellers.

Contact:
Andrej Bugrim
Phone: +1 (530) 752-0938
Fax: +1 (530) 752-7297
Email: andrej@itd.ucdavis.edu


Information Theoretic Approaches to Biology

Cochairs: David Dowe and Klaus Prank

Approaches to biological problems using notions of information or complexity, including methods such as Algorithmic Probability, Minimum Message Length and Minimum Description Length. Two possible applications are (e.g.) protein folding and biological information processing.

Contact:
David Dowe
Phone: +61 3 9905-5776
Fax: +61 3 9905-5146
Email: dld@cs.monash.edu.au


Molecules to Maps: Tools for Visualization & Interaction

Cochairs: Tom Ferrin & Eileen Kraemer

Tools and techniques to assist scientists in evaluating, absorbing, navigating, and correlating sequence, structural, and functional data through visualization and user interaction.

Contact:
Tom Ferrin
Phone: +1 (415) 476-2299
Fax: +1 (415) 502-1755
Email: tef@cgl.ucsf.edu


Computer Aided Drug Design

Cochairs: Jiri Novotny, Terry Lybrand, Teri Klein, Jurgen Bajorath

Biophysical concepts, algorithms and software tools aimed at quantitative understanding and predicting protein-ligand interactions, applicable to drug discovery efforts.

Contact:
Jiri Novotny
Phone: +1 (609) 252-6209
Fax: +1 (609) 252-6030
E-mail: novotny@bms.com


Protein Structure Prediction in the Post Genomic Era

Co-Chairs: Jeffrey Skolnick and Richard Lathrop

All aspects of protein structure prediction, with emphasis on approaches that are applied to full genomes, exploit genome-scale data sets, provide novel genomic analyses, or otherwise reflect protein structure prediction in the post genomic era.

Contact:
Jeffrey Skolnick
Phone: +1 (619)784-8821
Fax: +1 (619)784-8895
Email: skolnick@scripps.edu


Disorder in Protein Structure and Function

Cochairs: A. Keith Dunker, Charles Kissinger, Eugene Shakhnovich

Certain regions within proteins and some entire proteins are not ordered into unique structure, but rather exist as ensembles of structures. These 'disordered' or 'unfolded' proteins often carry out important biological functions. This session will focus on all aspects of disordered or unfolded sequences. Although the Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing (PSB) has an overall computational emphasis, experimentalists and theorists are strongly encouraged to participate.

Contact:
A. Keith Dunker
Phone: +1 (509)335-5322
Fax: +1 (509)335-9688
E-mail: Dunker@mail.wsu.edu


Further Information

For further information about the conference, registration, possible travel support, submission of papers not covered by the above categories, or other information, please contact the conference coordinator:


    PSB Conference Coordinator
    Kevin Lauderdale
    PSB Coordinator
    Section on Medical Informatics
    SUMC, MSOB X-215
    Stanford, CA, USA 94305-5479
    Telephone: (650) 725-0659 FAX: (650) 725-7944


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This page written by Lawrence Hunter, and last updated on April 28, 1998