Call for Art & Science Exhibition Proposals - ISMB/ECCB 2013

**Call for Arts and Science Submission Site* Closes May 24, 2013

Milana Frenkel-Morgenstern (Chair)
Geoff Macintyre
Venkata Satagopam
 

All questions pertaining to the Art & Science Exhibition should be directed to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Art & Science Exhibition will take place for the duration of conference. Artists are asked to submit images and videos for this exhibition. Videos will be projected in the exhibition space. Images will be shown both in physical form during the conference breaks. Images from the the exhibition will be displayed in the plenary room prior to the start of plenary talks at ISMB meeting.

Images and videos will automatically enter an online contest for a $200 (USD) award unless the artist indicates during the submission process that the work should be excluded from the contest.

ISMB/ECCB 2013 delegates will select the winner of the contest through majority vote based on their personal preference. Each delegate will have one vote.

An artist can be an individual or a group of individuals. Each artist may submit video or images for presentation in physical form and projection. If the artist submits multiple images for presentation in physical form there is no guarantee that all images will be displayed based on exhibition space. Space for physical presentation of images is limited and will be assigned on a first-come first-served basis.

An artist can be an individual or a group of individuals. Each artist may submit video or images for presentation in physical form and projection. If the artist submits multiple images for presentation in physical form there is no guarantee that all images will be displayed based on exhibition space. Space for physical presentation of images is limited and will be assigned on a first-come first-served basis.

The final artwork has to be submitted for review before the deadline through the online submission system. Together with the artwork a brief description of the work has to be submitted as well as a title for the work. The description must not be longer than 100 words.

Videos have to be in MPEG format only and no more than 4 minutes long. The file size of the video must not exceed 100 MB. It must be possible to decode videos with standard software. The maximum resolution for videos is 1024x768 pixels. Videos may include sound.

Images to be presented in physical form must be smaller than A1: 43 x 43 inch (109.2 cm x 109.2 cm). All accepted images will be required for the resubmission in a high resolution by the Art & Science committee, but the primary submitted images may be in a low resolution. Images can be submitted in PNG, JPEG, GIF, TIFF but NOT in PDF format. The file size must not exceed 2 MB for the primary images and 25MB for the high resolution images. The conference organizers will print the images for display at the conference.

Online submission system

All submitted artwork will be reviewed for compliance with content restrictions as well as technical requirements. Artwork out of compliance will be rejected. Furthermore, the organizers reserve the right to reject artwork for any reasons.

The artist must be holding the copyrights for all parts of the artwork or have permission from the copyright holders to use their works. Copyright holders other than the artist must be attributed accordingly in the abstract accompanying the artwork.

By submitting artwork to the Art and Science Exhibition the artist gives permission to the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) to display this work and reproductions thereof during ISMB/ECCB 2013 and in materials associated with this and future ISCB events, such as program booklets, (electronic) newsletters, promotional brochures and websites.

Video examples
http://accad.osu.edu/research/scientific_visualization_htmls/dancingDNA.htm
http://www.weizmann.ac.il/sb/faculty_pages/Sussman/movies/richardnew.mpg


Image Examples

ISMB 2010 -  First Prize
Anastasia Baryshnikova
University of Toronto, CANADA
Michael Constanzo, Chad Myers, Brenda Andrews, Charles Boone


The Genetic Landscape of a Cell

ISMB 2008 -first prize

Mr. Jared Flatow
Northwestern University, USA
A Portrait of James D. Watson in his own Words

http://www.iscb.org/ismb2008/ismb2008_includes/images/vrs/3225.pdf

Call for Highlights - ISMB/ECCB 2013

Highlights Track Chair: Burkhard Rost, Technical University Munich, Germany

Highlights Track Submission Site - Opens October 22, 2012

Highlights Track: About
Highlights Track: Deadlines
Highlights Track: Review Criteria
Highlights Track: Submission Guidelines

The Highlights Track was introduced at ISMB/ECCB 2007 in Vienna, and immediately ranked as one of the more popular program elements at the conference and since its introduction it continues to be one of the most popular conference tracks.

We invite the submission of full papers that have been published, or accepted for publication, between January 1, 2012 and the submission deadline, March 1, 2013. Publications that are "in press" and already linked on the journal web site are also welcome. A group of experts will select the papers to be presented at the meeting considering the impact of the work on the field, the likelihood that the work will make a good presentation, and the relevance to biomedical research, in general. Accepted presenters for the Highlights Track are required to make the presentation themselves, and must register and pay to attend the conference.

Submissions should include a 250-word Scientific Justification (abstract-like argument) that explains how the work of the submitted paper(s) is impacting the field. More details are given below.

All papers published in peer-review journals (no book chapters) between January, 2012 and March 1, 2013 are eligible to be presented as talks. Papers in press are acceptable only if already available through the journal web site. Note that presenters are be encouraged to also present more recent work, however, that work will not be considered in the decision. Up to 2 papers can be submitted as one single PDF if the authors intend to present the results of multiple qualifying papers.

The Chair will notify authors of the acceptance no later than Monday, April 1, 2013.

The selected Highlights will be presented in tracks that run in parallel to the main ISMB/ECCB meeting, July 21-23, 2013. All presentations will have to be completed within 20 minutes and will be followed by 5-minute discussions. While presenters will focus on the chosen paper(s), presentations of more recent results are strongly encouraged. In fact, closed stories that conclude with a particular publication not bearing follow up perspectives might not constitute the best Highlight presentations.

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All submissions will be evaluated by a group of editors to be named, and judged according to the following criteria:

1. Relevance, interest, and value of the topic to conference attendees,
2. Impact of the paper(s) on biology/medicine (while the impact of papers on science is not fully reflected by ISI/Google-like impact factors or high number of downloads, high values in such factors will clearly stand as a strong argument for acceptance),
3. "Presentability" of the work to a large, diverse audience,
4. Quality of oral presentations by the submitter (if known),
5. Submissions that permit the presentation of related interesting unpublished new results will be viewed favorably.

These "soft" criteria attempt to capture the underlying goal of the Highlights Track, namely the presentation of exciting and thought-provoking seminars that will both contribute to the success of the conference and to the impact the meeting has on advancing computational biology and bioinformatics.

PDF files of the papers,  the 250-word Scientific Justification (support abstract) and a 150-word presentation description must be submitted through the automated system by March 1, 2013 (midnight by any time zone). No exceptions will be allowed.

Submissions must be made to the automatic Highlights Track Submissions Site.
Submissions should include the following:

• For each presenter only one submission to the Highlights Track will be reviewed (the LAST will be taken by default). The same limitation applies for the last author (group). Publications can be grouped if it becomes clear how different publications will be combined in a talk. The maximal number of submissions per author/co-author is 5.
• Name/affiliation/email of submitter (assumed to be the presenter; note that the presenter cannot be changed because the identity and ability to present of that person will be an essential selection criterion).
• Names/affiliations/email of ALL coauthors (note: any name appearing on a published paper has to be added here). Note that all co-authors have to agree to the submission. It is the responsibility of the submitter to guarantee that all co-author email addresses are correct (email notifications of the submission will be sent to all co-authors).
• 150  word description of the presentation for promotion on conference website.
• Additional contact information (for presenter).
• 250-word limited abstract-like argument that explains the impact and importance of this work.
• Sources of original publication(s) (Year, Journal, Vol., pages).
• PDF with paper(s) (note: in case of the submission of 2 papers, both should be merged into one single PDF; all reviews will be based on the content of this PDF).
• Optional: link to Google Video demonstrating presentation skills of presenter.
• Only PDF submissions are acceptable. The submission system is currently unable to handle ASCII, Word, LaTeX, or anything other than standard PDF. It is the responsibility of the submitter to verify that the PDF is completely viewable/printable by all major operating systems (LINUX, MacOS, Windows).

All questions pertaining to the Highlights Track should be directed to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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Call for Late Breaking Research Track Proposals (LBR) - ISMB/ECCB 2013

Late Breaking Research Track Submissions - Closed March 15, 2013

ISMB/ECCB 2013 will bring together Bioinformaticians and Computational Biologists working in a wide range of disciplines, including molecular biology, biology, medicine, computer science, mathematics and statistics.

The LBR Track provides authors an opportunity to submit late breaking research to ISMB delegates. Presentations run in parallel to other conference sessions and presenters will be given a 20-minute time slot (plus 5 minutes for questions) in the conference schedule to provide a summary and update to their work.

Submissions and evaluation criteria:

Authors are to provide a 2 page, total, extended abstract of their work, including one (1) figure (11pt font, 1.5-inch margins). Submitters may choose to provide a link to a short (<=5min) video (eg. youtube) of them presenting their work, to assess presentation skills. Submissions will also be evaluated on the potential for an excellent and interesting presentation. Significance, interest to the bioinformatics community, and biological/medical impact would be the key evaluation criteria. Each submitter must provide a title, a short one (1) paragraph public abstract for inclusion in the electronic conference program and website. A one or two (1 or 2) sentence summary of novelty and significance of the work is to be included.

During the submission process you will be able to confirm if you want to have your research considered for poster presentation during the conference.

For more information please contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

CALL FOR LATE POSTERS – ISMB/ECCB 2013

Poster Chair: Yana Bromberg, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA

**Call for Late Posters Submission Site** Closed April 19, 2013

The organizers of ISMB/ECCB 2013 invite all interested participants and conference attendees to consider presenting a poster.

Posters are intended to convey a scientific result and are not advertisements for commercial software packages. There will be a separate space for Industry Posters in the exhibition area - to learn more about Industry Posters contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. A poster that is judged by the conference organizers to be an advertisement will be subject to removal without notice.

Posters submitted may cover any area of computational biology. We also encourage submission of purely experimental work and experimental posters should be submitted to the category (noted below) most accurately reflecting the area of this work and will be displayed accordingly. Posters must include original work that is unpublished or published after August 1, 2012.

Submitted posters  will be reviewed by the poster selection committee and notification of acceptance will be provided to the corresponding author no later than Monday, May 10, 2013.

Posters submitted as part of the Call for Late Poster submission process (opening March 25, 2013) will pay a non-refundable Late Poster Fee of $50 during the submission process. 

Posters submitted and accepted as part of the Call for Late Poster are NOT eligible to apply for Conference Travel Fellowship Support.

Poster authors submitting as part of the Call for Late Posters are NOT eligible to apply for a Conference Travel Fellowship Support. All poster abstracts must be submitted using the conference submission site by the abstract deadline: Friday, April 19, 2013 (You have until 11.59 p.m. in the time zone of your choice). Space for posters is limited, and while we will make every effort to accommodate all interested groups, we advise you to submit your poster well before the deadline. 

Posters submitted by the April 19, 2013 deadline will be notified of acceptance by Friday, May 10, 2013. You must submit a 250 word poster abstract that will be included in the electronic conference program and posted on the conference web site. The abstract should not contain your title/position or any personal information (e.g. affiliation). There is a maximum of one poster per presenting author. The presenting author of a poster must be registered delegate and be available at the poster session to which their poster is assigned. Any author may submit to various conference tracks in addition to submitting a poster for review.

Posters will be on display from Sunday, July 21 through Tuesday, July 23.  Poster Sessions with Authors will be held over the lunch break on Monday, July 22 (odd numbered posters) and Tuesday, July 23 (even numbered posters). Authors should be prepared in advanced to be available to present on their assigned day. Please note due to the large number of posters we are unable to accept special requests for presentation dates.

The conference organizers will not offer tables for laptop computer demos during the poster session. If you would like to demonstrate your software, you are encouraged to submit an application for Technology Track. All abstracts will be considered a "personal communication" to the conference attendees. Abstracts will not be published in the proceedings, but will appear in the electronic program (USB) and on the conference website.

Submitted posters will be reviewed and categorized into the following general areas:

Bioinformatics of Disease and Treatment
 - Computational approaches to the study of disease predisposition, progression and treatment
Computational aspects
 - Only TECHNICAL posters should be included here
Comparative Genomics
 - The study of the relationship of genome structure and function across different biological species or strains
Education *New for 2013*
- The examination of how different models of learning and educational programming in bioinformatics (e.g. tutorials, workshops, courses and e-learning) can be used to impact the understanding and use of bioinformatics across different audiences.
Epigenetics
 - The study of heritable changes in gene expression or cellular phenotype caused by mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence
Functional Genomics
 - The study of whole organism level gene and protein quantities, functions and interactions
Genome Organization and Annotation
 - The annotation of genome components' functions and spatial localizations
Genetic Variation Analysis
 - Detection, qualification, and annotation of genetic variants and their effects
Metagenomics
- The study of genetic material recovered directly from environmental samples
Pathogen informatics
- The study of viral/microbial/phage genomes with respect to host-pathogen interactions
Population Genetics, Variation and Evolution
- The study of allele variance and distribution and their change under the influence of evolutionary processes
Protein Structure and Function Prediction and Analysis
- Computational approaches to the prediction and annotation of protein structure, function, and their relationships
Proteomics
- The study of proteins structures and functions, often via protein purification and mass spectrometry techniques
Sequence Analysis
- The analysis of DNA, RNA or peptide sequences to understand their features, function, structure, or evolution
Systems Biology and Networks
- The study of complex component interactions within biological systems

Public Institutions (Not for profit) are able to submit their research findings as part of the call for posters. This will be displayed with in the topic area of Institutional Research

Individuals may choose to submit a poster presenting a review of a specific field or technique. These submissions do not need to contain original work from the author and are intended to be an introduction for individuals not familiar with the field or technique. These review are not meant to be advertisements (e.g. it is not acceptable that the poster is an advertisement for a book or other type of commercial publication)

All questions pertaining to the ISMB/ECCB 2013 posters should be directed to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

**Call for Late Posters Submission Site** Opens March 25, 2013

CALL FOR POSTERS – ISMB/ECCB 2013

Poster Chair: Yana Bromberg, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA
 

Poster Submissions are Closed

The organizers of ISMB/ECCB 2013 invite all interested participants and conference attendees to consider presenting a poster.

Posters are intended to convey a scientific result and are not advertisements for commercial software packages. There will be a separate space for Industry Posters in the exhibition area - to learn more about Industry Posters contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. A poster that is judged by the conference organizers to be an advertisement will be subject to removal without notice.

Posters submitted may cover any area of computational biology. We also encourage submission of purely experimental work and experimental posters should be submitted to the category (noted below) most accurately reflecting the area of this work and will be displayed accordingly. Posters must include original work that is unpublished or published after August 1, 2012.

Submitted posters  will be reviewed by the poster selection committee and notification of acceptance will be provided to the corresponding author no later than Monday, April 12, 2013.

A select number of accepted posters will receive an opportunity to complete a short oral presentation (approximately 8 minutes) during the conference parallel tracks in addition to their poster being displayed during the poster sessions. Posters nominated by at least one of the judges for oral presentation in the first round of review, will automatically be reviewed by additional members of the review panel. Posters amassing the largest number of recommendations will be selected for presentation. Late Posters will not be evaluated for oral poster presentation track. Additional details on this special Oral Poster Presentation track will be provided to directly to selected authors (May 3, 2013) in the Oral Presentation Track (OPT).

Those delegates considering submitting a poster for consideration to ISMB are encouraged to do so as part of the early Call for Posters submission process closing March 22, 2013. Posters submitted after this date as part of the Call for Late Poster submission process (opening March 25, 2013) will pay a non-refundable Late Poster Fee of $50 during the submission process. 

Posters submitted and accepted as part of the Call for Late Poster are NOT eligible to apply for Conference Travel Fellowship Support.

Poster authors submitting by March 22, 2013 may be eligible to apply for a Conference Travel Fellowships. All poster abstracts must be submitted using the conference submission site by the abstract deadline: Friday, March 22, 2013 (You have until 11.59 p.m. in the time zone of your choice). Space for posters is limited, and while we will make every effort to accommodate all interested groups, we advise you to submit your poster well before the deadline. 

Posters submitted by the March 22, 2013 deadline will be notified of acceptance by Monday, April 12, 2013. You must submit a 250 word poster abstract that will be included in the electronic conference program and posted on the conference web site. The abstract should not contain your title/position or any personal information (e.g. affiliation). There is a maximum of one poster per presenting author. The presenting author of a poster must be registered delegate and be available at the poster session to which their poster is assigned. Any author may submit to various conference tracks in addition to submitting a poster for review.

Posters will be on display from Sunday, July 21 through Tuesday, July 23.  Poster Sessions with Authors will be held over the lunch break on Monday, July 22 (odd numbered posters) and Tuesday, July 23 (even numbered posters). Authors should be prepared in advanced to be available to present on their assigned day. Please note due to the large number of posters we are unable to accept special requests for presentation dates.

The conference organizers will not offer tables for laptop computer demos during the poster session. If you would like to demonstrate your software, you are encouraged to submit an application for Technology Track. All abstracts will be considered a "personal communication" to the conference attendees. Abstracts will not be published in the proceedings, but will appear in the electronic program (USB) and on the conference website.

Submitted posters will be reviewed and categorized into the following general areas:

Bioinformatics of Disease and Treatment
 - Computational approaches to the study of disease predisposition, progression and treatment
Computational aspects
 - Only TECHNICAL posters should be included here
Comparative Genomics
 - The study of the relationship of genome structure and function across different biological species or strains
Education *New for 2013*
- The examination of how different models of learning and educational programming in bioinformatics (e.g. tutorials, workshops, courses and e-learning) can be used to impact the understanding and use of bioinformatics across different audiences.
Epigenetics
 - The study of heritable changes in gene expression or cellular phenotype caused by mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence
Functional Genomics
 - The study of whole organism level gene and protein quantities, functions and interactions
Genome Organization and Annotation
 - The annotation of genome components' functions and spatial localizations
Genetic Variation Analysis
 - Detection, qualification, and annotation of genetic variants and their effects
Metagenomics
- The study of genetic material recovered directly from environmental samples
Pathogen informatics
- The study of viral/microbial/phage genomes with respect to host-pathogen interactions
Population Genetics, Variation and Evolution
- The study of allele variance and distribution and their change under the influence of evolutionary processes
Protein Structure and Function Prediction and Analysis
- Computational approaches to the prediction and annotation of protein structure, function, and their relationships
Proteomics
- The study of proteins structures and functions, often via protein purification and mass spectrometry techniques
Sequence Analysis
- The analysis of DNA, RNA or peptide sequences to understand their features, function, structure, or evolution
Systems Biology and Networks
- The study of complex component interactions within biological systems

Public Institutions (Not for profit) are able to submit their research findings as part of the call for posters. This will be displayed with in the topic area of Institutional Research

Individuals may choose to submit a poster presenting a review of a specific field or technique. These submissions do not need to contain original work from the author and are intended to be an introduction for individuals not familiar with the field or technique. These review are not meant to be advertisements (e.g. it is not acceptable that the poster is an advertisement for a book or other type of commercial publication)

All questions pertaining to the ISMB/ECCB 2013 posters should be directed to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Call for Proceedings - ISMB/ECCB 2013

Proceedings Chair: Nir Ben-Tal, Tel Aviv University, Israel

**Call for Proceedings Submission Site**  Closed: January 7, 2013

ISMB/ECCB 2013 brings together Bioinformaticians and Computational Biologists working in a wide range of disciplines, including molecular biology, biology, medicine, computer science, mathematics and statistics. Papers that demonstrate both the development of new computational techniques AND their application to Molecular and Systems Biology, with significant outcomes to biomedical, agricultural, and environmental questions are especially encouraged.

* The authors of submissions that will qualify for the second round but will not make it into the ISMB Proceedings will be granted the opportunity to be redirected to Bioinformatics, subjected to Editorial considerations there.

We are soliciting high-quality research papers in any aspect of computational biology, including the following areas:

A complete listing of committee members will be available here.

Relevant computational techniques include, but are not limited to: machine learning; data mining; text analysis; pattern recognition; knowledge representation; databases; data modeling; combinatorics; stochastic modeling; string and graph algorithms; linguistic methods; robotics; constraint satisfaction; data visualization; parallel computation; data integration; modelling and simulation.

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Papers will be assigned to an Area and three reviews sought. Accepted papers will be published as conference proceedings in an open access, online-only, section of a regular issue of the Bioinformatics journal with an electronic version distributed to conference delegates. The proceedings will be available online approximately one month prior to the conference opening.

Publication of the proceedings as an online part of the Bioinformatics journal will result in fully citable articles, indexed by Medline and ISI. See the conference proceedings for ISMB 2012 for an example of online-only publication by Oxford University Press.

Presenters of accepted papers will be given a 20-minute time slot (plus 5 minutes for questions) in the conference schedule to provide a summary and update to their work. Paper presenters must register and pay to attend and present at the conference.

Papers can be submitted using the template (word or latex) of the Bioinformatics journal or in template-free format. If the Bioinformatics template is used the paper length should not exceed nine pages. For template-free the length of the paper should not exceed 12 pages (single space, 12 point font), including abstract, figures, tables, and bibliography. In either case, the paper must contain an abstract of up to 250 words.

After acceptance papers will have to be formatted according to the layout style of the Bioinformatics journal and will be limited to 9 pages. Formatting requirements can be found at: http://www.oxfordjournals.org/bioinformatics/for_authors/submission_online.html

If absolutely necessary, submissions can be accompanied by supplementary material, similar to submissions to scientific journals. The supplementary material should be collected in a separate file that is appropriately marked and uploaded as an attachment on the paper submission page in EasyChair. However, we advise against adding supplementary material, in general. Supplementary material will be published on the proceedings site alongside the online version of the conference paper. We do not support supplementary material presented at any other than the publisher's site. Additionally, the Bioinformatics journal does not edit or typeset supplementary data - it is uploaded online exactly as it is received, so authors must ensure its accuracy before submitting.

Papers should be submitted in their final form; poor quality submissions or insufficiently prepared papers are very often rejected.

PAPERS NOT CONFORMING TO THESE GUIDELINES WILL BE RETURNED WITHOUT REVIEW.

Papers submitted for review should represent original, previously unpublished work. At the time the paper is submitted to ISMB/ECCB 2013, and for the entire review period, the paper should not be under review by any other conference or scientific journal.

Papers will be accepted electronically, in PDF format only, at the submission site until Monday, January 7, 2013. (You have until 11:59 pm in a time zone of your choice. This means that the submission server will be closed at noon, 11:59 am GMT (UTC+0), January 8, 2013).

This year we will adopt a review procedure that is closer to that of a regular submission to the Bioinformatics journal. We will have two rounds of reviews, allowing the authors to reply to the reviewer comments. In the first round the submissions will be classified into two categories: (a) minor/major changes, and (b) not accepted. Authors of submissions in the first category will be given the opportunity to submit revised drafts based on the reviewer comments, with letters of reply to the reviewers outlining the main changes and/or giving counter arguments to the reviewer points. The second round of review will involve selection of the most suitable papers for ISMB/ECCB. These will be published in the Bioinformatics journal and presented at the conference. The authors of submissions that will not be accepted in the second round will be given the opportunity to be redirected to an on-line issue of the Bioinformatics journal (fully citable; equal to regular publication in this journal), subjected to the Editorial considerations of Bioinformatics.

The results of the first round of review will be provided by e-mail no later than Monday, February 4, 2013. Revised, corrected versions of the submissions (including letters of reply to the reviewers), are due no later than March 11, 2013, and conditional acceptance notification for these papers will be April 5, 2013. Final submission, which must conform to the formatting guidelines available when the paper is accepted, is April 12, 2013, and final acceptance notification is April 17, 2013. Details of the submission process and format of accepted papers will be provided at the time of paper acceptance.

Papers not accepted may be resubmitted as a "regular conference poster" until Friday, March 22, 2013 or as a "late conference poster" until Friday, April 19, 2013. Poster information is available here.

For questions concerning the scientific content of submissions, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Call for Special Sessions Proposals - ISMB/ECCB 2013

Special Session Chair: Michal Linial, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

** Special Sessions Submissions - Closes October 26, 2012

ISMB/ECCB 2013 will feature a Special Sessions track that will run throughout the conference in parallel to other tracks (except the keynote presentations). In its structure, each Special Session provide for a more in-depth look at the subject matter presented. Proposals for special sessions should be submitted via the online submission system at here prior to October 26, 2012. 

Special Sessions have the purpose of introducing the ISMB/ECCB community to relevant 'hot' topics that were not covered in previous meetings. A wide range of topics are possible, as long as they importantly influence computational biology and bioinformatics.

Topics that are of special interest (but not limited to) include the accumulating challenges for: Single Cell; Robust Systems; Bioinformatics based Medicine; Computational Neuroscience; Metagenomics; Dynamic Proteomics; Compuational Chemistryp; non-coding RNA; and more!

The topics might cover emerging themes that ISMB and ECCB are not currently approaching with the desired proficiency. We encourage you to submit a proposal on an area that in your eyes is important to the computational biology community and may impact the future of the field.

This call is an invitation for scientists and professionals to submit proposals for special sessions for ISMB/ECCB 2013, to take place in Berlin, Germany, between the dates of July 21 - 23.

Organizer benefits:

1) Special Session organizers will receive two (2) complimentary one-year ISCB memberships to be used for themselves or to award to speakers/participants as determined by them for memberships with a start date no later than the end of 2013 calendar year..

2) Special Session organizers are entitled to discounted registration for two (2) speakers' participation on the day of the session at 50% off the published member early-registration rate. (Organizers must identify the Special Session speakers designated to receive the discounted one-day registrations by May 17,  2013 by contacting  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. in order to receive special registration instructions). All other participants of the Special Session, including organizers and other invited or accepted speakers, are responsible for their own registration costs at the full registration fees. If needed, organizers are encouraged to seek sponsorships and/or use grant funds available to them to cover their own and their speakers' travel and registration costs. 

Technical instructions:
Special sessions run the same schedule as all other parallel tracks. They MUST be designed as half-day sessions (2 hours) and synchronized with other tracks. The regular presentation unit is 30 minutes consisting of  20 minute talks + 5 minute discussion + 5 minutes for movement between parallel tracks. Sessions may include any form of presentation such as talks or panel discussions.

Preference will be given to emerging fields and to related fields in which the ISMB/ECCB community needs to acquire higher proficiency. Special sessions are expected to provide a broad perspective on an emerging research field. Sessions will be selected from the submissions to this open call. Potential fields of interest include metabolomics, epigenetics and imaging. Additional topics of particular interest to the ISMB/ECCB community are welcome.

Proposals for special sessions should be submitted via the online submission system here prior to October 26, 2012.

How to submit: Submissions must include a one-page description of the field, its relevance to the ISMB community, and the reasons for planning a session on this topic at ISMB/ECCB 2013. Submitters may want to briefly describe their qualification to organize the Special Session. These explanations could be followed by a list of topics for possible presentations with one-paragraph descriptions. Finally, a draft of the time schedule for the session should be presented. A finalized list of speaker names is not necessary but may add weight to the proposal. If you list invited speakers as "accepted", please make sure that they agree to speak given to the financial constraints describe below.

Financial constraints: Special Sessions are an integral part of the ISMB meeting. Special Sessions chairs and speakers MUST pay their expenses including registration to the meeting. Therefore, the organizers highly encourage session organizers to seek independent funding, and to include any commitment that they may have secured in the proposal. ISMB/ECCB will help in the administrative aspects of assigning the rooms, announcements and adding the detailed schedule to the conference program. Note that the ISMB/ECCB cannot financially support the speakers or the Special Session organizers.

Submission evaluation: All submissions will be evaluated by a committee, which will consider the following criteria:

Call for Special Interest Groups and Satellite Meetings - ISMB/ECCB 2013

Special Interest Groups Committee Chair: Alan Christoffels, University of Western Cape, South Africa

Follow these links to see examples of previous SIG meetings:

ISMB 2012 (Long Beach)
ISMB/ECCB 2011 (Vienna)

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