Oral Presentation Submissions

ISCB-Africa ASBCB Bioinformatics Conference welcomes original research and previously published research submissions for oral presentation consideration.

Abstract submissions are intended to convey a scientific result that is original work/previously published work, and are not advertisements for commercial software packages. Abstracts may cover any area of computational biology, but preferably within one of the topic areas listed below:

• Agricultural Bioinformatics
• AI in genomics and precision medicine
• Bioinformatics Education
• Biomedical Ethics
• Challenging traditional research ecosystems in Africa
• Data governance
• Data for OneHealth
• Drug design and discovery
• Informatics for Biobanks
• Metagenomics
• Open Science and Open Data
• Pathogens genomics
• Population Genetics, Variation and Evolution
• General Bioinformatics and Computational Biology

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Original Research Submission Guidelines

All abstracts must be a maximum of 250 words (to appear in the conference booklet) and should provide at the least the following information within them: background information, approach/methods, results and conclusions (actual headings within the abstract are not necessary). Authors may submit an additional paragraph of up to 250 words stating the relevance of the work for the purpose of convincing reviewers of the scientific content/validity; these additional 250 words will not be published and are for reviewing purposes only.

Original Abstract Submissions for Oral Presentation Deadline is 13 September 2019.

Click here to submit!

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Previously Published Reaserch Submission Guidelines

Abstract submissions must be a maximum of 250 words (to appear in the conference booklet) and should provide an explanation of how the work of the submitted paper(s) is impacting the field. Submission must highlight work that has been published between June 2017 - August 2019.

Scientific Program Committee will also consider research that have been previously presented (within the timeframe of June 2017 - August 2019). Research must contain new significant finds. Author is to provide the conference name, program listing (if available) and conference URL. This information should be entered in the publication information field during the submission process.

Submissions should include the following:

• For each presenter only one previously published research submission 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).
• 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).
• 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).

Previously Published Research Submission Deadline is 13 September 2019.

Click here to submit!

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Special Sessions

Coming Soon.

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Keynote Speakers

	Melissa A. Haendel, PhD Associate Professor of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology School of Medicine Oregon Health & Science University	Solomon Ofori-Acquah, PhD Dean, School of Biomedical and Allied Health Sciences University of Ghana
	EMBO Keynote: Christine Orengo, PhD Professor, Division of Biosciences University College London	Ciara Staunton, PhD Senior Lecturer in Law Middlesex Univserity London
	Cristobal Uauy, PhD Group Leader John Innes Center

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Melissa A. Haendel, PhD
Associate Professor of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology School of Medicine
Oregon Health & Science University

Melissa Haendel is the Director of the Center for Data to Health (CD2H) at Oregon Health & Science University, and the Director of Translational Data Science at Oregon State University. Her background is in both wet and dry lab translational science, with a focus over the past decade on the development of ontologies, semantic engineering technologies, and open science infrastructure programs. Dr. Haendel's vision is to weave together healthcare systems, basic science research, and patient generated data through development of data integration technologies and innovative data capture strategies. Dr. Haendel co-leads the Monarch Initiative, an international consortium dedicated to utilizing model organism genotype-phenotype data, deep phenotyping, and graph-based integration techniques to improve rare disease diagnosis. She also coleads the NCATS Data Translator, which aims to integrate hundreds of data resources for mechanism and drug discovery. The CD2H is tasked with coordinating informatics across 59 Clinical and Translational Science Award Institutes, and is focused on implementation of cloud and information architecture, clinical data model interoperability, and precision-medicine focused terminology development. Dr. Haendel is the co-lead for the GA4GH Clinical and Phenotypic workstream, where she supports cross-disciplinary international teams, development of standards for clinical genetics, and improving access to data across the world.

Born reusable: data in harmony to realize the dream of AI
Addressing complex challenges in disease discovery and diagnosis requires weaving together healthcare systems, basic science research, and patient-generated data. Although we learn different things from these different data sources, building a coherent holistic view of this data landscape is non-trivial. Often in the aggregation process, many of the original connections within the data are lost. Moreover, it is difficult to make new (inferred) connections without a common conceptual model. This common model is made possible by novel data integration technologies and innovative data capture strategies that leverage ontologies. This talk will focus on the use of ontologies to support the development of knowledge graphs that span disciplinary boundaries. Dr. Haendel will also discuss strategies for how to reconcile different terminologies and examples of harmonized semantic structures and their use in aiding mechanism discovery and rare disease diagnosis.

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Solomon Ofori-Acquah, PhD
Dean, School of Biomedical and Allied Health Sciences
University of Ghana

Professor Ofori-Acquah was appointed Dean of the School of Biomedical and Allied HealthSciences, University of Ghana in January 2017, and Associate Professor of Medicine andHuman Genetics, University of Pittsburgh, USA in 2013. He is Director of the West AfricanGenetic Medicine Centre (WAGMC), and Director of the Sickle Cell Disease Genomics Networkof Africa (SickleGenAfrica). Professor Ofori-Acquah was born in Cape Coast. He attendedAdisadel College from 1977-1984 where he was the Cadet Corps Sargent Major. He migrated toEngland in 1985 to pursue higher education; he obtained a Higher National Certificate inHematology and Blood Transfusion in 1989 and Part 1 Fellowship of the Institute of BiomedicalSciences in 1990, MSc in Bio-molecular Organization from Birkbeck College, University ofLondon in 1992, and PhD in Molecular Genetics, King’s College London, University of London in2000. He conducted postdoctoral studies on missense RNA therapy for sickle cell disease(SCD) at the University of South Alabama; he was Scholar of the Comprehensive Sickle CellCenter and Assistant Professor of Cell Biology and Neuroscience at the University of SouthAlabama. He joined Emory University as Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in 2007 and theUniversity of Pittsburgh in 2013 as Tenured Associate Professor of Medicine.

Professor Ofori-Acquah’s research is focused on pathogenesis, genomics and innovativetherapy in SCD. His seminal publication in the Journal of Clinical Investigation in 2013 definedheme as a danger molecule involved in sterile inflammation in SCD and established the firstmouse model of the Acute Chest Syndrome. His research has continuously been funded by theNIH and other funding agencies since 2004. He has authored over 60 research papers, reviewsand book chapters, and mentored over 30 Junior Scientists, Physicians and Students. He is anExpert NIH Reviewer with service on multiple committees focused on Respiratory Biology,Hematology and Genomics. He was Chair of the Laboratory Sub-Committee of the GhanaNational Technical Advisory Committee for Newborn Screening in 2011-2013, and a FoundingExecutive Member and Inaugural Chair of the Scientific Committee of the Ghana BiomedicalConvention. He was Vice-President and President of the Ghana Biomedical Convention in 2012and 2013 respectively, and in 2016 received an Appreciation Award as Founder of the GhanaBiomedical Convention. As Director of WAGMC, he is spearheading efforts to train the firstcohort of postgraduate genetic counsellors and medical genetics scientists in West Africareflecting his continued efforts to promote all aspects of biomedical science in the region.

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EMBO Keynote: Christine Orengo, PhD
Professor, Division of Biosciences
University College London

Christine Orengo is a computational biologist, whose core research has been the development of robust algorithms to capture relationships between protein structures, sequences and functions. She has built one of the most comprehensive protein classifications, CATH, used worldwide by tens of thousands of biologists, and central to many pioneering structural and evolutionary studies.

CATH structural and functional data for hundreds of millions of proteins has enabled studies that revealed essential universal proteins and their biological roles, and extended characterisation of biological systems implicated in disease e.g. in cell division, cancer and ageing. CATH functional sites have revealed protein residues implicated in enzyme efficiency and bacterial antibiotic resistance. This data also identified genetic variations likely to be driving human diseases and the drugs that can be repurposed to offset the pathogenic effects.

Christine is a Vice President of the International Society of Computational Biology (ISCB). She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and Elected member of EMBO since 2014, and a Fellow of ISCB since 2016. She is a founder of ELIXIR 3DBioInfo.

CATH Functional families - insights into impacts of genetic variations
Powerful tools for comparing protein structures and protein sequences have allowed us to analyse proteins from more than 20,000 completed genomes and identify 5500 evolutionary domain superfamilies, comprising a total of ~90 million domains. These superfamilies cover nearly 70% of domains from all kingdoms of life and are captured in our CATH resource. Some structural frameworks seem particularly suited to supporting different residue arrangements in the active sites and structural variations on the surfaces of the domains which can modify protein functions. Sub-classification of CATH superfamilies into functional families (FunFams) allows us to examine the structural mechanisms of function evolution in these superfamilies.

We have used the CATH-FunFams to analyse the impacts of genetic variations. For example, we observe that a particular mode of alternative splicing – Mutually Exclusive Exons (MXE) – is typically associated with variation in a small subset of residues on the surface of the protein and close to known or predicted functional sites for that protein. We analysed these effects using publicly available MXE data from 5 model organisms. Some compelling examples of MXE events in glycolytic proteins have been explored in more detail. The CATH-FunFams have also be used to determine whether genetic variations linked to human disease e.g. cancer, result in changes in residues close to functional sites, thereby modifying the functions of the proteins and affecting specific pathways and processes.

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Ciara Staunton, PhD
Senior Lecturer in Law
Middlesex University London

Dr Ciara Staunton is a Senior Lecturer in Law at Middlesex University and a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Biomedicine, EURAC, Italy. Her research focuses on the governance of new and emerging technologies, in particular stem cell research, genomic research and biobanking. She has been in receipt of grants from the Wellcome Trust, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Irish Research Council and she has been involved in the development of policy in Ireland, Bahrain and Africa.

Prior to joining Middlesex she was a post-doctorate researcher at the Centre for Medical Ethics and Law, Stellenbosch University. During this time she co-ordinated the Advancing Research Ethics in Southern Africa (ARESA) Program and was a member of the H3Africa Ethics and Regulatory Issues Working Group. She obtained her PhD from NUI, Galway for her thesis The Regulation of Stem Cell Research in Ireland.

Prior to starting her academic career, she was a Legal Researcher at the Law Reform Commission of Ireland.

Developing data governance frameworks for health research in Africa
Recent years has seen the strengthening of data protection legislation, regulations and policies across the world. These documents seek to safeguard the rights of data subjects while promoting the movement of data. Generally there are to be welcomed and should serve to improve transparency, accountability and oversight. However they have implications for the collection, use and sharing of health data.

This paper will discuss the implications of these data protection regulations on health research in Africa and highlight issues researchers that use health data now need to consider.

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Cristobal Uauy, PhD
Group Leader
John Innes Center 

The Uauy lab is focused on using genetics and genomics to improve both yield and quality components in wheat.
Their research comes under four main areas: Increasing yields, Improving crop quality, Disease resistance, Genomic enabled technologies, and 100 trillion miracles.
The lab uses molecular genetic approaches to identify genes involved in wheat productivity traits and enhance the translation of this knowledge into improved varieties for industry and consumers.
They aim to understand the mechanisms by which these genes function in order to develop the most rational strategies to deploy these genes into commercial varieties.

Unlocking the polyploid potential of wheat through bioinformatics and genomics
Several developments over the past few months have radically changed the way we work with polyploid wheat. Both hexaploid and tetraploid wheat now have whole genome sequences and reliable gene models. We have developed in-silico mutant resources with over 95% of genes with either a knockout or deleterious allele in both tetraploid and hexaploid wheat. We recently published a comprehensive gene expression atlas in wheat with over 1000 RNA-Seq samples along with co-expression and transcription factor target networks. All this data is open-access and displayed at EnsemblPlants. Novel strategies have accelerated cloning of disease resistance and other genes. Using accelerated growth conditions (speed breeding), the community now routinely grows wheat in 10-week seed-to-seed cycles compared to the previous 16-20 weeks. All these developments have dramatically lowered the barriers to undertake biological research in polyploid wheat. For many purposes, wheat can now be treated (almost) like a model crop species.

The next phase will be to start understanding the biological mechanisms underlying the most important traits in polyploid wheat and to design strategies to ensure this knowledge is quickly transferred to the field. I argue that given polyploidy, breeders have exploited only a fraction of the potential genetic variation in the wheat genome. The recent breakthroughs in wheat genomics now allow us to make a decisive effort towards exploiting this under-utilised variation, thereby unleashing the full potential of the wheat genome.

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Poster Presentations Schedule

Posters Odd Numbers - Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Location: Terrace

Posters Even Numbers - Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Location: Terrace

Presenters:

• If you are in the Odd Number Session, you may set up your poster any time between 8:30 am and 11:00 am on Tuesday and must remove your poster by 8pm on Tuesday. All remaining posters will be discarded.
• If you are in the Even Number Session, you may set up your poster any time between 8:30 am and 11:00 am on Wednesday and must remove your poster by 8pm on Wednesday. All remaining posters will be discarded.

Poster Display Size: When preparing accepted posters please note that your poster should not exceed the following dimensions: 46 inches wide by 45 inches high. There will be 2 posters per side on the each poster board.

As of October 22, 2019. Subject to change without notice.

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Schedule at a Glance

Talk Abstracts are available on the App
Programme PDF is available Here

Can't make it this year?  Join us for the ISCB Africa ASBCB LIVE Broadcast.

Schedule may be subject to change

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Sponsors

Travel Fellowship Sponsors

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Sponsorship Information and Sign-up

Links in this page:

Gold Sponsor | Silver Sponsor | Bronze Sponsor | Copper Sponsor
Enhanced Benefits for Sponsors | Technology Track | Exhibitor Showcase
Additional Sponsorship Opportunities | Support for Travel Fellowships | Cancellation Policy

Please take a moment to review the opportunities below
or click here for a pdf of the prospectus.

Sign up to Become Sponsor or Exhibit! Click here for online form.

For more information:

Andrew P. Falter
ISCB Exhibit and Sponsorship Specialist
(ISCB) email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Office: 203-797-9559
Cell: 571-271-5430

Sign-Up Today!

ISCB Africa ASBCB 2019 Sponsorship Sign-up: https://iscb.swoogo.com/iscbafrica19-sponsorship

In addition to the following, sponsor gets to choose 7 items from the “Enhanced Benefits” list

• Two (2) complimentary conference registrations
• Logo slide during opening session
• Logo with link to organization on conference website index page
• Logo with link to organization on conference website sponsorship page
• Sponsor on conference app with organization name & description

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In addition to the following, sponsor gets to choose 5 items from the “Enhanced Benefits” list

• One (1) complimentary conference registrations
• Logo slide during opening session
• Logo with link to organization on conference website index page
• Logo with link to organization on conference website sponsorship page
• Sponsor on conference app with organization name & description

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In addition to the following, sponsor gets to choose 3 items from the “Enhanced Benefits” list

• One (1) complimentary conference registration
• Logo slide during opening session
• Logo with link to organization on conference website index page
• Logo with link to organization on conference website sponsorship page
• Sponsor on conference app with organization name & description

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In addition to the following, sponsor gets to choose 1 item from the “Enhanced Benefits” list

• One (1) complimentary conference registration
• Logo slide during opening session
• Logo with link to organization on conference website index page
• Logo with link to organization on conference website sponsorship page
• Sponsor on conference app with organization name & description

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• Organization recognized in ISCB Annual Report with logo and link to preferred URL
• Pre-event Electronic list of conference delegates for one time use
• Post-event Electronic list of conference delegates for one time use
• Brochure or Video insert on the mobile app
• One (1) 15 minute technology talk
• One (1) tabletop exhibit display space
• Discounted registration at 25% off regular registration fee
• Half-page advertisement in ISCB Newsletter (full color, issue of choice, Gold Level only)
• Quarter-page advertisement in ISCB Newsletter (full color, issue of choice, Silver and Bronze only)
• Up to 5 job posts on ISCB website

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• One (1) 15 minute technology track

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• One (1) Exhibitor Showcase display space
• Please note the showcase is designed for pop-up displays, approximately six feet in length, or a standard tabletop exhibit
• One (1) Complimentary Registration
• Logo with link to organization on conference website sponsorship page
• Sponsor on conference app with organization name & description

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Organizations will benefit by acknowledgement on the conference website, mobile app, onsite signage and through delegate appreciation of your support.

• Poster Reception: $10,000
• Delegate Folio: $2,000
• Refreshment Break: $2,500
• Keynote Sponsor: $2,500

• Purchase pre-conference registration list:
• Exhibitor/Sponsor: $300
• Non-exhibitor: $500

• Purchase post-conference registration list:
• Exhibitor/Sponsor: $500
• Non-exhibitor: $700

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Provide support to the student travel fellowship program at any amount and be recognized on the website as a travel fellowship sponsor.

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Cancellation must be received in writing to ISCB by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by fax 619-374-2890. A full refund less US$100 administration fee if cancellation received prior to August 15, 2018. 50% refund if cancellation received between August 16 and October 1, 2018. No refund will be given after October 1, 2018.

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To confirm your participation or for more information, please contact:

Andrew P. Falter
Exhibit and Sponsorship Specialist
International Society for Computational Biology
(ISCB) email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Office: 203-797-9559
Cell: 571-271-5430

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ISCB - A Safe Space (Code of Conduct)

ISCB works to maintain an environment that allows science and scientific careers to flourish through respectful, inclusive, and equitable treatment of others and is committed to providing a safe place for its members and nonmember participants. As a statement of principle, ISCB rejects discrimination and harassment by any means, based on factors such as ethnic or national origin, race, religion, citizenship, language, political or other opinion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, age, or economic class. In addition, ISCB opposes all forms of bullying including threatening, humiliating, coercive, or intimidating conduct that causes harm to, interferes with, or sabotages scientific activity and careers. Discrimination, harassment (in any form), and bullying create a hostile environment that reduces the quality, integrity, and pace of the advancement of science by marginalizing individuals and communities. It also damages productivity and career advancement, and prevents the healthy exchange of ideas.

ISCB is committed to supporting a productive and safe working environment for all who are participating in ISCB activities, conferences, and programs. Incidents of inappropriate and uncivil behavior are taken extremely seriously. If an individual experiences or witnesses harassment, they should contact an ISCB Ombudsman (wearing the ISCB Ally ribbon) in person or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or use a venue phone and ask for security if they feel unsafe. All complaints will be treated seriously and responded to promptly. While ISCB is not an adjudicating body, ISCB has appointed Ombudsmen who can be consulted, give advice or help seek out appropriate authorities to further handle any form of harassment or assault. Confidentiality will be maintained unless disclosure is legally required.

All conference delegates are expected to adhere to the ISCB Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.

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