MESSAGE FROM ISCB ISMB/ECCB 2007: The Premier Conference on Computational Biology , B. J. Morrison McKay*,

Two Societies Meet in ways to specifically encourage increased participation from The ISMB conference series was previously underrepresented kicked off in 1993 by the vision of David disciplines of computational biology. Searls (GlaxoSmithKline), Jude Shavlik The major challenge for this (University of Wisconsin Madison), and interdisciplinary field is that two Larry Hunter (University of Colorado). cultures with very different ways of A few years down the road, ISMB had publishing intersect at computational established itself as a primary event in biology meetings such as ISMB/ECCB: computational biology and triggered computational scientists publish their Introduction the founding of ISCB, the International most important results in rigorously Society for Computational Biology reviewed proceedings of meetings; the he International Society for (http://www.iscb.org). ISCB has been lower the ratio between accepted/ Computational Biology (ISCB) organizing the ISMB conference series submitted, the more valued the presents ISMB/ECCB 2007, the since 1998. While ISCB evolved into the T publication. In many cases, publication Fifteenth International Conference on only society representing in proceedings of conferences on Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology computational biology globally, its computer are valued more (ISMB 2007), held jointly with the Sixth flagship conference has become the highly than those in peer-reviewed European Conference on Computational largest annual forum focused on scientific journals. In contrast, life Biology (ECCB 2007) in Vienna, Austria, computational biology worldwide scientists publish their best work in July 21–25, 2007 (http://www.iscb.org/ (Table 1). The ECCB conference series peer-reviewed journals with the highest ismbeccb2007). Now in the final phases was conceived by T. Lengauer (MPI for possible impact; journals with higher of selecting papers, presentations, Informatics, Saarbru¨ cken), H.-P. impact are ranked higher and demonstrations, and posters, the Lenhof (), and M. publications are not coupled to organizers are preparing what will Vingron (MPI for Molecular Genetics, presentations at any meeting. Open likely be recognized as the premier Berlin) in 2002 and since then access publications attach the value to conference on computational biology organized annually by a panel of the individual publication rather than in 2007. ISMB/ECCB 2007 has European computational biologists expanded in ways to specifically (http://bioinf.mpi-sb.mpg.de/ encourage increased participation conferences/eccb/eccb.htm). ECCB is the only pan-European conference Editor: Philip E. Bourne, University of California San from previously underrepresented Diego, United States of America disciplines of computational biology. series in this field. At Glasgow in 2004, This conference will feature the best of ISMB and ECCB pioneered a common Citation: Lengauer T, Morrison McKay BJ, Rost B meeting chaired by (2007) ISMB/ECCB 2007. PLoS Comput Biol 3(5): e96. the computer and life sciences through doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.0030096 (EBI Cambridge) and David Gilbert a variety of new and core sessions (University of Glasgow) that continues Copyright: Ó 2007 Lengauer et al. This is an open- running in multiple parallel tracks, access article distributed under the terms of the to be perceived as one of the most along with an increase in keynote Creative Commons Attribution License, which successful meetings ever by many permits unrestricted use, distribution, and presentations, posters on display reproduction in any medium, provided the original standards. As a result of the first union author and source are credited. throughout the duration of the in 2004, the two societies are now conference, and an extensive industry committed to joining together Abbreviations: ECCB, European Conference for exhibition. Special interest group Computational Biology; ISCB, International Society whenever ISMB will be held in Europe, for Computational Biology; ISMB, Intelligent Systems meetings, a satellite meeting, and to further the fellowship and mutual for Molecular Biology tutorials all will precede the main benefit achieved through a combined Thomas Lengauer is a Director of the International conference dates. organizational effort. One positive Society for Computational Biology (ISCB), founder of the European Conference for Computational Biology, effect on the two societies has been the and Director of the Max-Planck Institute for strong bond evolving through the Informatics, Saarbru¨cken, Germany. B. J. Morrison common event. McKay is Executive Officer of ISCB. Burkhard Rost is President of ISCB, and in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia Two Cultures Intersect University, New York, New York, United States of America. Furthering the success of that initial * To whom correspondence should be addressed. union, ISMB/ECCB 2007 has expanded E-mail: [email protected]

PLoS Computational Biology | www.ploscompbiol.org0779 May 2007 | Volume 3 | Issue 5 | e96 Table 1. ISMB History by the Numbers

Year Location Attendees Papers Posters PLoS Track Other Events Accepted Submitted Ratio Accepted Submitted Ratio Accepted Submitted Ratio Highlights Track Submitted Keynotes Tutorials Presented Special Interest Groups Demonstrations Exhibitors

1999 Heidelberg 655 34 91 37.4 139 170 81.8 8 10 2 31 13 2000 San Diego 1,272 42 141 29.8 275 280 98.2 7 14 1 10 20 2001 Copenhagen 1,251 38 180 21.1 345 355 97.2 6 14 6 29 23 2002 Edmonton 1,624 42 207 20.3 494 494 100.0 8 15 6 20 36 2003 Brisbane 927 48 342 14.0 414 435 95.2 8 16 5 13 27 2004 Glasgow 2,136 67 496 13.5 952 1,006 94.6 8 14 8 47 42 2005 Detroit 1,731 56 426 13.1 622 631 98.6 8 14 8 76 42 2006 Fortaleza 880 67 407 16.5 556 586 94.9 23 217 10.6 8 12 4 39 20 2007 Vienna N/A 66 417 15.8 NA .900 NA 36 241 14.9 213 10 14 8 NA NA

NA, not available at the time of this writing. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.0030096.t001

to the unspecific forum of this full day focused on the state of the art already created quite a response from publication (bad papers can be in RNA to highlight the traditional ISMB attendee, the published in highly ranked proceedings many of the still-open problems that community leaning more toward the and journals). Thereby, these open present opportunities for future biology side of this interdisciplinary access publications may ultimately research. With noncoding RNAs field, and from the panel of experts offer a way out of this clash of moving from the status of a molecule of selecting the talks for presentation. As publication cultures. However, this minor consequence to the rank of high of this writing, the selection process is solution does not suffice to address the importance for understanding under way, and this new track promises needs of all members of a Society regulatory function, demand for RNA- presentations based on papers directly rooted firmly in both cultures. related bioinformatics tools continues impacting work in the field with A multitrack solution to attract both to rise. This session, as all Special relevance for molecular and medical communities has continued to develop Sessions, will review the current state of biology. Papers from high-impact since its first implementation at ISMB a specialized field, and will explore journals such as Science, , and the 2002 in Edmonton, Canada, chaired by growing opportunities for official ISCB journal, PLoS David Wishart (University of Alberta). computational biologists and needs for Computational Biology, have been Further expansion today offers even new tools and methodologies. submitted. In all, more than 60 journals greater opportunities for scientific were cited among the submissions programming of the conference to New: Highlights Track received, ranging from Bioinformatics to include new and relevant areas of PNAS, from Cancer Research and the A newly conceived Highlights Track research. These goals have guided the Journal of Critical Care to Physical Review (http://www.iscb.org/ismbeccb2007/ organization of the 2007 meeting in Letters and Theoretical Biology and Medical highlights) is of work that has recently many new ways. Modelling. been published and that has either New: Special Sessions already impacted biology or is likely to New: Industry Track do so. Work from highly ranked The new Special Sessions Track (http:// journals and from journals The third Viennese novelty is the www.iscb.org/ismbeccb2007/program/ traditionally more frequented by Industry Track (http://www.iscb.org/ specialsessions) enables in-depth focus experimental biology is welcome. As ismbeccb2007/industry), for talks more on emerging and important areas. are the other two Viennese novelties, relevant and interesting for colleagues Special Sessions will cover a wide namely the Special Sessions Track and from industry. This track induces a new spectrum of topics: genomic database the Industry Track (below), the forum for the meeting of academia and ethics, cheminformatics, genetic Highlights Track is a pilot project aimed industry in a venue that highlights networks, computational epigenetics, at increasing diversity and adding innovative applications and practical RNA, and methods in systems biology. quality. While it will supposedly require impact studies of Life Science For example, the session on more than one ISMB meeting to Informatics; it is chaired by Reinhard Computational Approaches to the Modern conclude whether or not these pilot Schneider (EMBL Heidelberg). Each RNA World chaired by Ivo Hofacker projects succeeded, the opportunity to selected talk is intended to describe a (University of Vienna) will provide a present recently published work has scientific problem from a business

PLoS Computational Biology | www.ploscompbiol.org0780 May 2007 | Volume 3 | Issue 5 | e96 perspective, including the approach Søren Brunak, pioneered the of selecting the final slate of talks. used to address the problem, the publication of the proceedings in the Barbara Bryant (Millennium current state of the project, an journal Bioinformatics as a means of Pharmaceuticals) chairs this event, as evaluation of the benefits, and plans for increasing the value of such she did successfully in 2006. future developments. These publications for the more biology- Presentations will primarily represent presentations are tailored to give oriented members of the field. As is as-yet-unpublished works that attendees the opportunity to view common practice for computer science, demonstrate exceptional scientific scientific approaches through an all material published in the merit with a focus on the application industrial lens, which may prove proceedings is novel, and publication in of computational methods leading to especially valuable to a young the proceedings precludes the important biological conclusions. As researchers’ understanding of how Life publication of this material in any other such, this does not preclude publishing Science Informatics is used in the peer-reviewed journal or meeting. A the work elsewhere, thus appealing to business sector. record number of 417 original the computer science and manuscripts were submitted to ISMB/ experimental biology communities. Expansion of Keynotes ECCB 2007. In a rigorous review process, modeled on the editorial review Demonstrations An increase and refocus of keynote in scientific journals, 66 (16%) original presentations provided a forum for research Papers (http://www.iscb.org/ Demonstrations (http://www.iscb.org/ opening ISMB more toward biology at ismbeccb2007/program/papers) were ismbeccb2007/demonstrations) have ISMB 1999 in Heidelberg, chaired by T. selected for presentation in Vienna. also become an integral part of the Lengauer (MPI for Informatics, Papers will be presented in two parallel ISMB and ECCB conference series, and Saarbru¨ cken). At Vienna, the number tracks. The paper-reviewing process put are now also offered at other of Keynote Presentations (http://www.iscb. increased weight on work that opens bioinformatics conferences. Demos org/ismbeccb2007/keynotes) has again new directions and is likely to impact allow academic institutions as well as been increased to provide additional molecular and medical biology in for-profit organizations to showcase insights into open areas of research general. All papers selected for oral their software and/or hardware in a from experimental perspectives. Two presentation will be published in the hands-on format to audiences of up to presentations feature the annual ISCB conference proceedings as part of a 50 participants. The Demo sessions award winners: Eran Segal (Weizmann regular online issue of Bioinformatics have proven to be in high demand, and Institute) and Temple Smith (Boston under the open-access model, i.e., will be have consistently added a valuable University); eight others sample made freely available. aspect of the conference for both outstanding findings in contemporary presenters and attendees. At Vienna, biology: Søren Brunak (Technical PLoS Track Shoba Ranganathan (Macqauarie University of Denmark), Stephen K. University) will chair the presentation Burley (SGX Pharmaceuticals), Michael An initiative from Phil Bourne of demonstrations. Eisen (University of California (University of California San Diego) Berkeley), Anne-Claude Gavin (EMBL contributed toward making ISMB 2005 Posters Full-Time Heidelberg), John Mattick (University in Detroit, chaired by David States and For the first time in many years, all of Queensland), Erin O’Shea (Howard Brian Athey (both of the University of Posters (http://www.iscb.org/ Hughes Medical Institute Harvard Michigan), a success by the addition of ismbeccb2007/posters) accepted for University), Rene´e Schroeder a PLoS Computational Biology Late presentation at ISMB will be on exhibit (University of Vienna), and Terry Breaking Poster Session. At ISMB 2006 in during the entire length of the meeting. Speed (University of California Fortaleza, , chaired by Goran Over the years, ISMB had grown to a Berkeley). These lectures will review Neshich (Embrapa/CNPTIA), the size that has made it impossible to hot news in areas such as statistics, concept was slightly altered to become display all accepted posters during the structural biology and structural PLoS Track of Oral Abstracts, which entire conference. Yet, there is no genomics, protein interactions, attracted 217 original submissions of disagreement on the enormous value function prediction, RNA, gene novel work; 24 of those were presented all posters bring to the conference. For expression, mass spectrometry, and at the meeting. Highly rated at ISMB the first time in several years, we are in transcriptional network structure and 2006, the PLoS Track (http://www.iscb. a facility with the capacity to function. org/ismbeccb2007/plostrack) will again be an integral component of ISMB/ accommodate several hundred posters High-Quality Papers ECCB. It will feature oral on display at the same time. Therefore, presentations based on submitted we are especially pleased to ease the Traditionally, the major event at the abstracts that are scientifically novel viewing of posters by allowing all ISMB meetings has been the and appeal to a broad audience of attendees the opportunity to view and presentation of original papers computational biologists and absorb the abundance of research published in the ISMB proceedings. biologists. As of this writing, a group of being presented in a single venue. Initially published by the Association area chairs drawn from the PLoS Multiple author sessions will round out for the Advancement of Artificial Computational Biology editorial board, the opportunity to further explore Intelligence Press (AAAI Press), the supported by additional invited area posters of specific interest to any chair of ISMB 2001 in Copenhagen, chairs and reviewers, is in the process attendee. Marco Punta (Columbia

PLoS Computational Biology | www.ploscompbiol.org0781 May 2007 | Volume 3 | Issue 5 | e96 University) will chair the selection of 19–20. Hershel Safer (Weizmann Registration posters in Vienna. Institute) chairs this event. An integral pillar of ISMB from the beginning was ISMB/ECCB 2007 is expected to draw ; Parallel Scheduling the day reserved for the presentation of 2,000 attendees to Vienna to take Tutorials (http://www.iscb.org/ part in the world’s largest and most Except for the plenary talks by ismbeccb2007/program/tutorials), scientifically comprehensive keynote presenters, all tracks will run bioinformatics meeting of the year. chaired by (MPI for in parallel, allowing attendees the ISCB members gain significant ISMB/ Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig). ability to probe deeper into their ECCB 2007 Registration (http://www.iscb. The tutorials at Vienna will run in specific areas of interest and come away org/ismbeccb2007/registration) parallel with the 3rd ISCB Student with fresh ideas and the possibility of discounts, yet nonmembers are offered Council Symposium (SCS3) on July 21; newfound collaborators. While this a complimentary, one-year Manuel Corpas chairs this event concept was first introduced at ISMB membership as part of their higher (University of Manchester). Each of 2002, Vienna brings a new degree of nonmember fees. The early bird these preconference meetings offers parallelism by running at least seven registration discount period ends June additional opportunities to learn and parallel sessions: two for original Papers, 1 for all registration categories, network with a specific group of peers one for PLoS Track, one for Special although registration will remain open of similar interests and goals. Sessions, two for Highlights Tracks, and through the conference dates. We hope Attendees traveling with family one for Industry Track and Demos. to see you there. & members and/or children will find this Before and around the Main year’s event offers a variety of optional tours and activities during the meeting, Meeting Acknowledgments and extended tours on dates TL is conference chair and has full oversight ISMB/ECCB 2007 is also preceded on surrounding the conference. over the conference. BR is conference co- July 19–20 by seven special interest Specifically for those traveling with chair. group meetings (SIGs) (http:// children, we are working on providing Author contributions. All authors con- www.iscb.org/ismbeccb2007/program/ childcare options and information that tributed to writing the paper. Funding. The authors received no specific sigs), in parallel with a Satellite Meeting would enable parents to attend the funding for this article. (http://www.iscb.org/ismbeccb2007/ meeting while children are safely Competing interests. The authors have program/sigs/#3dsig) taking place July entertained. declared that no competing interests exist.

PLoS Computational Biology | www.ploscompbiol.org0782 May 2007 | Volume 3 | Issue 5 | e96