Message from ISCB ISMB 2006 Goran Neshich*, Philip E. Bourne, Søren Brunak reveal some outstanding contributions determined, human health; (3) Minoru to the variety of computational Kanehisa and , databases –related fields, most notably, and data integration; (4) Michael the applications in plant- and human- Claverie and Eugene Koonin, related diseases. Papers accepted to the comparative genomics; (5) Eugene conference will be published as an Shakhnovich and Diana Murray, open-access issue of the journal molecular and supramolecular . If previous meetings are dynamics; (6) Anand Kumar and Robert he International Conference indicative, over 400 papers and 600 Stevens, ontologies; (7) Joel Bader, on Intelligent Systems for posters could be submitted. To systems biology; Zhaolei Zhang, (ISMB) is T accommodate late-breaking research, proteomics; Nick Grishin and Søren the premier meeting of the International Society for selected posters will be presented orally Brunak, sequence analysis; Janet (ISCB), drawing in a PLoS sponsored session. Thornton and Robert Russell, up to 2,000 attendees annually (Box 1). Area chairs are still being secured, structural bioinformatics; Alfonso This year is of particular significance as but to date the following distinguished Valencia and Andrey Rzhetsky, text the meeting will be held in Fortaleza, scientists have agreed to manage the mining and information extraction; Brazil, August 6–10 (http:// review process in at least the following Hanna Margalit and Michael Zhang, www.iscb.org/ismb2006), as opposed to broad topic areas: (1) Manolo Gouy and transcriptomics. sites in Europe and the United States. , evolution and Finally, there will be software The location reflects the ISCB’s role in phylogeny; (2) researchers soon to be demonstrations, tutorials (some of promoting computational biology which we hope to publish in PLoS worldwide and its recognition of Computational Biology), meetings of Brazil’s emergent role in the fast- Box 1. ISMB 2006 Committees special interest groups, and more. With growing field of computational biology. Conference Chair the promise of great science and ISMB 2006 will be preceded by the 20th Goran Neshich Brazilian hospitality waiting, we look anniversary of SwissProt (http://www. Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecua´ria forward to seeing you in Brazil. “ swissprot20.org), allowing for an Campinas, Sa˜o Paulo, Brazil extended period of high-quality science and the opportunity to see a unique Conference Vice Chair part of the world. Ana Vasconcelos ISMB 2006 will be notable by having Laboratorio Nacional de Computacao Cientifica keynote lectures from three Nobel Petro´polis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Laureates (Rich Roberts, Kurt Program Chairs Wuthrich, and Robert Huber), as well Philip E. Bourne Citation: Neshich G, Bourne PE, Brunak S (2006) ISMB as Sir Tom Blundell, Charles DeLisi, 2006. PLoS Comput Biol 2(2): e11. University of California San Diego Elena Conti, Mathieu Blanchette and La Jolla, California, United States of America DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.0020011 . While still Søren Brunak Copyright: Ó 2006 Neshich et al. This is an open- including the core scientific areas BioCentrum, Technical University of Denmark access article distributed under the terms of the found at previous ISMB meetings (e.g., Lyngby, Denmark Creative Commons Attribution License, which evolution and phylogeny, comparative permits unrestricted use, distribution, and Advisory Committee reproduction in any medium, provided the original genomics), the program will be author and source are credited. extended to include sessions in keeping Abbreviations: ISMB, Intelligent Systems for with the scope of PLoS Computational SwissProt Group Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics Geneva, Switzerland Molecular Biology Biology—e.g., a session on the Barry Honig Goran Neshich is in the Department of Structural computational impact on human Bioinformatics, Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa health, a distinguished panel discussion Agropecua´ria, Informa´tica Agorpecua´ria, Campinas, on ‘‘New Frontiers in Computational New York, New York, United States of America Sa˜o Paulo, Brazil. is in the Department Nobuhiro Go of Pharmacology, University of California San Diego, Biology,’’ and sessions on systems La Jolla, California, United States of America, and is biology. A special session on Jaeri Kyoto, Japan * To whom correspondence should be addressed. E- ‘‘Bioinformatics in Latin America’’ will mail: [email protected]

PLoS Computational Biology | www.ploscompbiol.org0061 February 2006 | Volume 2 | Issue 2 | e11