ISCB Newsletter 8-1

Research in Computational Molecular Biology, is preparing to roll out the red carpet for its ninth year in a row of delivering a well organized conference at the intersection of computer science and biology. The RECOMB series focuses on theoretical advances in computational biology and their applications in molecular biology and medicine. The origins of the conference came from the mathematical and computational side of the field, and there remains to be a certain focus on computational advances. However, the effective use of computational techniques to biological innovation is also an important aspect of the conference. The 2005 conference will be held on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and over 700 attendees are expected to participate.

ISCB is pleased to once again sponsor travel fellowship funds to enable a select number of student and post doc members to attend RECOMB this year. The travel fellowship application deadline is March 15 and members wanting to be considered for ISCB funding must apply through the application form at http://www.iscb.org/travel_fellowship_form.php. Applying directly through the RECOMB site is also recommended as travel fellowship resources are very limited, although not all applicants are guarantee funding and no applicant will be funded by both organizations.

For the first time ever, ISCB is also sponsoring the Treasure Hunt Ice-Breaker which is an Orienteering Event similar to the one that has become so popular as an icebreaker at the annual ISMB conference series. You and your orienteering team will have one hour to find control locations marked on a map of the MIT campus. For the nerdly amongst you, this is the NP-complete Prize Collecting Traveling Salesman problem, which has a respectable and fascinating literature, and may have applications in bioinformatics. For more information on the sport of orienteering visit the International Orienteering Federation at www.orienteering.org.

The meeting features eight impressive keynote speakers and 39 selected papers to be presented from the 217 submissions received. Poster submission deadlines have just recently closed so the final number of posters is not yet known, but if 2004 is any indication there should be over 300 highly interesting posters demonstrating the enormous scope of research work in this field.

See the related Key Dates article in this newsletter for important upcoming dates to watch for, and visit http://www.broad.mit.edu/recomb2005/index.html for full conference information, including online registration. Early registration closes April 4, 2005, and pre-registration closes May 1st. So, sign up now to make plans to join 700 of your colleagues at of the premier international computational biology conferences around.