Message from ISCB ISMB 2014—The Premier Conference for the World’s Computational Biologists

Christiana N. Fogg1, Diane E. Kovats2* 1 Freelance Science Writer, Kensington, Maryland, United States of America, 2 Executive Director, International Society for Computational Biology, La Jolla, California, United States of America

education, and service. Myers is the computational approaches to analyze Director and Tschira Chair of Systems complex data sets. Biology at the Max Planck Institute of Robert Langer, a Professor in the and Genetics in Dres- Department of Chemical Engineering at den, Germany. Myers is well known for his the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, work on developing the BLAST algorithm will give a keynote presentation on Tuesday, for sequence comparison, as well as his July 15. Langer is a prolific researcher who The 22nd Annual International Con- work on using shotgun sequencing to works on developing novel drug-delivery ference on Intelligent Systems for Molec- sequence the human genome at Celera systems, with a particular interest in using ular Biology (ISMB) will be a world-class Genomics. His research is now focused on polymers to deliver therapeutic molecules computational bioimaging. He has devel- like DNA and genetically engineered pro- scientific meeting that brings together oped new microscopic devices and software teins. Langer’s innovative work was recog- computational biologists and bioinforma- that are used for building 3D biological nized most recently when he was selected as ticians of every career stage from diverse models, and these tools are providing a recipient of the 2014 Breakthrough Prize scientific disciplines. ISMB 2014 will unparalleled insights into the inner work- in Fundamental Physics and Life Sciences. convene at the John B. Hynes Memorial ings of cells and systems. The last keynote presentation will be Convention Center in Boston, Massachu- Michal Linial, a Professor of Biochem- given on Tuesday, July 15, by , setts, on July 11–15, 2014. ISMB is the istry, Molecular Biology, and Bioinfor- a Professor of Bioengineering, Genetics, matics at the Hebrew University of and Medicine, and Computer Science. flagship conference of the International Jerusalem, Israel, will be a keynote speaker Altman has been selected as this year’s Society for Computational Biology (ISCB). on Monday, July 14. Linial is the Director ISCB Fellows Keynote Speaker. He works This unique meeting draws scientists from of the Sudarsky Center for Computational on building and applying new algorithms to a broad range of fields that use computa- Biology and is the first female head of the explore diverse topics including RNA tional biology and , includ- Israel Institute for Advanced Studies. Her structure, how drug efficacy is impacted ing sequence analysis, comparative geno- broad research activities encompass both by genomics, and how to model motion mics, proteomics, structural biology, data ‘‘wet lab’’ projects and computational mod- and dynamics of biological structures. eling, with particular interests in neuronal mining, and systems biology. Beyond the keynote speakers, ISMB will cell differentiation and synapse formation, be brimming with talks on cutting-edge ISMB 2014 is anchored by six keynote proteomic analysis of membrane proteins, discoveries across diverse areas. The Special presentations from world-renowned scien- and functional genomics. Sessions track will run throughout the tists. Isaac ‘‘Zak’’ Kohane, the Director of The 2014 winner of the Overton Prize, meeting and will feature hot topics that the Children’s Hospital Informatics Pro- Dana Pe’er, is featured as a keynote have not been featured in previous ISMB gram and the Henderson Professor of speaker on Monday, July 14, as well. meetings. The Highlights and Proceedings Pediatrics and Health Sciences and Tech- The Overton Prize recognizes early- or tracks are also popular conference tracks nology at Harvard Medical School, will be mid-career scientists working in computa- that include oral presentations based on speaking on Sunday, July 13. Kohane’s tional biology or bioinformatics who are recently published papers selected through unique background in both pediatric endo- rising leaders in these fields. Pe’er is an rigorous peer-review processes. The Pro- crinology and computer science has enabled Associate Professor in the Department of ceedings papers are also published as an him to develop a research program that uses Biological Sciences and Systems Biology at online-only open-access section of the genomics to better understand the genetic Columbia University. Her research focus- Bioinformatics journal. The Technology track basis of diseases, including autism and es on understanding cellular and molecu- features presentations that showcase the cancer. He has also developed computer lar networks at a holistic level by using use of novel software or hardware relevant systems that permit the use of information from electronic health records for genetic studies while maintaining patient privacy. Citation: Fogg CN, Kovats DE (2014) ISMB 2014—The Premier Conference for the World’s Computational Sunday, July 13, will also feature a key- Biologists. PLoS Comput Biol 10(4): e1003566. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003566 note presentation by Eugene ‘‘Gene’’ Myers, Published April 17, 2014 the 2014 recipient of the ISCB Accom- Copyright: ß 2014 Fogg, Kovats. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative plishment by a Senior Scientist Award. Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This award honors luminaries in the fields of computational biology and bioinfor- Funding: CNF was paid by ISCB to write this article. matics who have made significant contri- Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. butions to these areas through research, * E-mail: [email protected]

PLOS Computational Biology | www.ploscompbiol.org 1 April 2014 | Volume 10 | Issue 4 | e1003566 to computational biologists. The Late throughout ISMB 2014. The annual Several social events will balance out Breaking Research track will also feature talks Student Council Symposium will convene the program for ISMB 2014 and will on a wide range of topics of significant just prior to ISMB 2014 and will include create ample opportunities for attendees to interest to the bioinformatics community. talks by a keynote speaker and student gather together in informal settings. An A large poster session will provide an presenters, as well as a poster session. opening reception is scheduled for the opportunity for trainees and scientists Opportunities for career guidance and evening of Saturday, July 12, and poster from every career stage to present their social events are also included. In addition, viewing receptions are being held on both latest research findings in a collegial and the ISCB Student Council will be coordi- Sunday, July 13, and Monday, July 14. A collaborative atmosphere. ‘‘Birds of a nating an Art & Science Exhibition during World Cup viewing area will also be set up Feather’’ sessions and workshops will be the ISMB meeting that will feature images in the Exhibit Hall. more informal sessions that encourage and videos of scientific material derived As a long-standing hub of biologi- discussion and collaboration. These ses- from research projects or artwork gener- cal and computational research break- sions will feature such themes as bioinfor- ated from scientific tools or methods. throughs, Boston promises to be an matics curriculum guidelines, personalized Saturday, July 12, and Sunday, July 13, excellent host to ISMB 2014. Both local medicine, bioinformatics core facility man- will be filled with substantive one- and two- Boston- and Cambridge-area scientists, agement, trends in digital publishing, and day specialized meetings that precede the as well as visitors from every corner of data analysis. The exhibit hall will show- main ISMB meeting. Special Interest Group the globe, will be showcasing diverse case a wide variety of organizations and (SIG) and Satellite meetings will be focused topics that span from personalized medi- companies that are developing tools and on a range of topics that include but are not cine, to machine learning in systems reagents relevant to computational biolo- limited to structural bioinformatics, mass biology, to open-source bioinformatics gists and bioinformaticians, and attendees spectrometry, and regulatory genomics. software development. This must-see will be able to see some of these items in Two half-day tutorial sessions will also be event has something for everyone and is action at exhibitor presentations. held on July 12 and will feature (1) Com- an excellent destination to start your next The ISCB Student Council will be putational Metagenomics and (2) Wikipe- collaboration. organizing several high profile events dia: WikiProject Computational Biology.

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