CALL FOR PAPERS – RECOMB Conference on Regulatory and Systems Genomics, with DREAM Challenges

Dear Colleague,

It is our pleasure to announce the 5th annual RECOMB Conference on Regulatory and Systems Genomics, with DREAM Challenges, one of the premier annual meetings for computational and experimental scientists in the fields of regulatory genomics and systems biology. This year the meeting has become an official conference of the International Society for Computational Biology, and will be held at the Hotel Sofitel San Francisco Bay November 12-15, 2012. As in the past, this year's meeting combines the following conferences:

• 9th Annual RECOMB Satellite on Regulatory Genomics
• 8th Annual RECOMB Satellite on Systems Biology
• 7th Annual DREAM Reverse Engineering Challenges

We are now accepting submissions of full-length papers to be featured and published in conjunction with the conference. Authors of selected papers will be invited to present their work at the meeting. In addition, we have arranged partnerships with the journals Genome Research and the Journal of Computational Biology to publish high-quality papers. Our program committee will review all submitted papers in collaboration with the journal editors.

We invite you to take advantage of this unique opportunity. Please use the EasyChair system to submit your manuscript at http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=recombsbrgdream2012. Instructions on manuscript submission, as well as information about the program committee who will review papers is also available on the conference website at http://recomb-2012.c2b2.columbia.edu.

***The deadline for submissions is Friday, September 7. ***

This conference is designed to present the latest findings about regulatory and systems genomics, foster discussion about current research directions, and establish new collaborations that will advance the development of a systems-level understanding of gene regulation. Some possible topics include:

• Modeling and recognition of regulatory motifs and modules
• Chromatin state establishment, maintenance, and role in development
• Post-transcriptional regulation and small regulatory RNAs
• Regulatory networks, metabolic networks, proteomic networks
• Cellular signatures of biological responses and disease states
• Phosphorylation, metabolic fluxes, systematic phenotyping
• Mathematical modeling and simulation of biological systems
• Methods for systematic validation of high-throughput biological predictions
• Approaches for aggregation of results arising from different methodologies

We will also be opening conference registration and a call for abstracts very soon.

We hope that you will consider submitting a paper, and look forward to an exciting meeting in November.

Best regards,

Andrea Califano, Manolis Kellis, Sylvia Plevritis, and Gustavo Stolovitzky

Conference Chairs

20 Years ISMB - 15 Years ISCB (ISCB Newsletter - Summer 2012)

Dear Members and Colleagues,

We are pleased to submit to you our annual ISMB Focus Issue newsletter, which includes features on some of the most important ISCB activities and initiatives of this past year.

You are invited to access the full newsletter online at www.iscb.org/images/stories/newsletter/newsletter15-1/index.html

Or, you may prefer to download the PDF newsletter at www.iscb.org/images/stories/newsletter/newsletter15-1/ISCB-newsletter-15-1.pdf

As a preview, the Table of Contents for this newsletter includes the following articles:

• A Letter to ISCB Members & Colleagues (from President Burkhard Rost and Executive Officer BJ Morrison McKay)
• Officer and Student Council Elections (please note the elections closing date has changed since this was written: now July 25th)
• Spotlight on ECCB12
• Meet the ISCB Fellows Class of 2012
• Student Council Symposium Highlights
• Overton Prize: Ziv Bar-Joseph
• 2012 ISCB Sr. Scientist Award: Gunnar von Heijne
• Announcing ISMB/ECCB 2013 Berlin
• News from ISCB Student Council
• FASEB Updates
• Introducing Stacy Slagor
• PLoS Computational Biology Overview
• A Report of the Curriculum Task Force
• Bioinformatics Journal Update
• NIGMS Celebrates 50 Years
• ISCB Continues to Advocate for Open Access
• GLBIO 2012 Highlights
• Call for Proposals to Organize ISCB-Asia 2013
• ISCB Community Conferences & x-Meetings
• Upcoming Conferences & Events

Happy reading to you!

Sincerely,

BJ Morrison McKay, ISCB Executive Officer

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The International Society for Computational Biology Announces a Wikipedia Computational Biology Article Competition

July 15, 2012 - Long Beach, CA - At the 20th annual international conference on Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB), the president of the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB), Burkhard Rost, together with Alex Bateman, senior investigator of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, will announce on Sunday, July 15th, a competition to improve the existing Wikipedia articles about any aspect of computational biology.

A key component of the ISCB's mission to further the scientific understanding of living systems through computation is to communicate this knowledge to the public at large. Wikipedia has become an important way to communicate all types of science to the public. The ISCB aims to further its mission by increasing the quality of Wikipedia articles about computational biology, and by improving accessibility to this information via Wikipedia. This extends the work of PLoS Computational Biology (an official journal of the ISCB), which links with Wikipedia to provide Education Track articles.

By introducing a competition during ISMB, the ISCB will capitalize on the depth of expertise among its members in attendance at ISMB, and through its community of members and colleagues around the world to support the Computational Biology WikiProject (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Computational_Biology). As Wikipedia is a collaborative endeavor, the competition will be open to both individuals and groups, and prizes will be awarded for best contributions.

About ISCB

The International Society for Computational Biology is a not-for-profit scholarly society based in La Jolla, California, at the San Diego Supercomputer Center on the campus of the University of California, San Diego. The ISCB has a global membership of nearly 3,000 researchers from 70 countries. For more information, visit www.iscb.org.

Press Contact
BJ Morrison McKay
ISCB Executive Officer
+1-760-522-8805
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Final 48 Hours of ISCB Elections

Dear ISCB Member,

Just 48 hours remain for voting in the ISCB Officers and Student Council Leaders election. You can have a voice in determining the future of ISCB by participating in these elections. The positions being voted this year are:

• ISCB Vice President, ISCB Treasurer, and ISCB Secretary
  
• Student Council Rep to the ISCB Board of Directors, Student Council Chair, Student Council Vice-Chair, Student Council Secretary, and Student Council Treasurer

Please go to www.iscb.org/elections now to read the candidate statements and cast your ballot. (Logging in to your membership account is required to verify your membership status, but your ballot is 100% anonymous.)

Voting will close on July 25th and the new leaders will be announced as soon as possible following ratification of the results by the ISCB Board of Directors and the Student Council Leaders in August.

Thank you for your participation!
The ISCB Nominations & Elections Committee