29, 30, 31 may 2006
Amsterdam
the Netherlands

isnb.amc.uva.nl

Symposium focus: Bioinformatics of networks

Bioinformatics of biological networks involves a range of interconnected multidisciplinary research topics. Research areas include the quantitative understanding of the dynamics of regulatory and metabolic networks by using modeling and simulation techniques, the reconstruction of biological pathways from experimental data, identification of pathway modules, the analysis and interpretation of experimental data in the context of biological networks, the construction and use of (public) pathway databases, network visualization and the development and use of pathway markup languages such as SBML and BioPax. Biological questions and new experimental techniques as well as ongoing (bio)informatics and statistics efforts will guide the development of the next generation of bioinformatics software packages. The combination of computational and genomics research will accelerate the detailed understanding of biological networks, which will find many applications in all application domains of life sciences.

Bridging the gap between disciplines

ISNB is specifically aimed at researchers working in life sciences, which includes disciplines like molecular biology, genomics, bioinformatics, biostatistics, informatics, computational life sciences and mathematical biology. Since more and more researchers are focusing on biological networks from different perspectives there is large interest in a dedicated symposium like the ISNB. ISNB provides a platform to bring together these different researchers in this field to exchange ideas and facilitate new national and international collaborations. Experience from ISNB2004 and ISNB2005 learns that there is a significant interest in this symposium. This symposium will also contribute to merge ideas and research from scientific programs in the field of bioinformatics, computational life sciences (e.g. simulation and modeling) and the experimental genomics work.

Scientific program and tutorial lectures

The Third International Symposium on Networks in Bioinformatics (ISNB 2006) is likely to continue its success from previous years by bringing together different disciplines to discuss ongoing research in this exiting field of biological networks and bioinformatics. In continuation of ISNB 2005 we aim to organize a three day meeting during which we will again schedule a mix of tutorial lectures and scientific presentations. The scientific program includes research and poster presentations from Dutch and international acknowledged researchers but also from young researchers starting in the field. The tutorial lectures provide an excellent opportunity to have well known researchers in the field give an introduction to junior and senior researchers and students who recently started working in related projects. The setup of the symposium facilitates sufficient possibilities to meet and talk to colleague researchers, which will facilitate many new and exciting collaborations and research projects.

ISNB and the Netherlands Bioinformatics Center (NBIC)

ISNB is part of ongoing initiatives of the Netherlands Bioinformatics Center (NBIC) to strengthen and promote bioinformatics research in the Netherlands. ISNB will feature Dutch bioinformatics researchers who are successful in the field of the bioinformatics of biological networks and who are support by the Dutch BioRange research program that is executed by NBIC.

ISNB as the leading “bioinformatics of biological networks symposium”

We specifically aim to give ISNB an internationally recognized and leading position. ISNB is unique as there are no other symposiums that are dedicated to the bioinformatics of biological networks. As part of this aim we try to motivate internationally leading researchers in this field to attend and present at ISNB. We expect that continuation of ISNB contributes to this goal and that the quality of this symposium increases every year. Again we aim for 175 participants.

Life sciences companies

More and more companies are active in the field of bioinformatics and computational life sciences. Several companies even have a focus on the development of pathway analysis software and databases for biologists and bioinformaticians. In several cases their products provided clear value. ISNB 2006 is again supported by several leading companies in the field of life sciences. Several commercial parties have been asked to present a scientific case to demonstrate how their product helps in advancing our understanding of biological networks.

Organizing committee

Dr. Antoine H.C. van Kampen Dr. Jaap .A. Kaandorp

Academic Medical Center Section Computational Bioinformatics Laboratory Science K2-215 Faculty of Science Postbus 22660 University of Amsterdam 1100 DD Amsterdam, the Kruislaan 403 Netherlands 1098 SJ Amsterdam, the 020-5667096 Netherlands a.h.vankampen@amc.uva.nl 020 5257539 / 020 5257463

jaapk@science.uva.nl

Program committee

Dr ir. Perry D. Moerland (chair) Room J1B-206 Bioinformatics Laboratory Academic Medical Center

Prof. dr. ir. Marcel J.T. Reinders Information and Communication Theory group Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science Delft University of Technology

Dr. Joke Blom Center for Mathematics and Computer Science Univerity of Amsterdam