Call for papers: Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing

[Larry Hunter]

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^              Call For Papers, Abstracts and Demonstrations               v
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^                                 for the                                  v
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^                    Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing                     v
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^             Mauni Lani, Big Island,  Hawaii - January 4-9, 1999          v
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^                      URL:  http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/psb                   v
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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:

 * Gene Expression and Genetic Networks
 * Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery in Molecular Databases
 * Computer Modeling in Physiology: From Cell to Tissue
 * Complexity and Information Theoretic Approaches to Biology
 * Molecules to Maps: Tools for Visualization & Interaction
 * Computer-Aided Drug Design
 * Protein Structure Prediction
 * Disorder in Protein Structure and Function

>>>> 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 at 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
 +1 (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 see our web page (http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/psb) or
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 at 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 at qucis.queensu.ca<p>


** 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 at 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 at cs.monash.edu.au <p>

** Molecules to Maps: Tools for Visualization & Interaction
   Cochair: Tom Ferrins and 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 at 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 at bms.com

** Protein Structure Prediction
   Cochairs: Richard Lathrop & Jeffrey Skolnick

   All aspects of protein structure prediction, with emphasis on approaches
   that lead to testable protein structure predictions, and experimental
   results across a large diverse set of proteins.

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

** Disorder in Protein Structure and Function
   Cochairs: A. Keith Dunker, Charlse 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 at mail.wsu.edu

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
UCSF Computer Graphics Laboratory  
Box 0446 
513 Parnassus Avenue  
San Francisco, California 94143-0446 
USA  
email: psb at cgl.ucsf.edu 
fax: +1 (415) 476-0688 
tel: +1 (415) 476-5128