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Site ISMB 2006 ISMB 2005 SIGs Recap Acknowledgements and Contributors 
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© 2005 International Society for Computational Biology. | ISMB 2005 Special Interest Groups Meeting Recaps Seven Special Interest Groups (SIGs) met in conjunction with ISMB 2005 in Detroit, Michigan, this past summer. Each year ISCB invites select SIGs to share a summary of their meetings with our readers as a means of potentially expanding awareness of their work both during the conference and throughout the year. Below is a recap of three such SIGs from 2005. Automated Function Prediction 2005 SIG Summary Automated function prediction is maturing into a sub-field of its own within computational biology. On the one hand, with all the data coming in from various genomics projects, there is a dire need for annotation of genes and gene products. On the other hand, the computational biology community has just begun to recognize the need for bona fide automated annotators: algorithms that are capable of receiving sequence or structure data and producing a succinct function prediction, and doing so not only by homology based methods. Furthermore, with the emerging predictors, comes the need for assessment: how well are the function predictors doing? The first Automated Function prediction SIG meeting was set up as focal point for the various research groups involved in this new and exciting field. The 17 talks that were given discussed the various aspects of computationally predicting function from sequence, function from protein 3D structure, function from genomic context, and the ways and means of assessing the quality of function prediction programs. The response from leading researchers was extraordinary, with Michael Sternberg from Imperial College delivering a keynote talk, and Olivier Lichtarge (Baylor College of Medicine), Russ Altman (Stanford University), Patricia Babbitt (UC San Francisco) and Adam Godzik (The Burnham Institute) leading plenary sessions on predicting function from structure, context based predictions, analysis of function site, functional diversity, and challenging the servers. Server challenge was done by Martin Jambon and Iddo Friedberg from The Burnham Institute, and reported by Iddo Friedberg. A poster session and lively discussions on the various aspects of this emerging field served to enhance this exciting day. With 89 registrants and a head count of over 100 attendees, the one day meeting was considered extremely successful. It was agreed that function prediction is indeed a distinct field, and that there is a scientific community which is interested in meeting regularly to discuss and develop it. Excerpts from the meeting will be published in Protein Science in early 2006. More information can be found at: http://ffas.burnham.org/AFP. BioLINK 2005 SIG Summary
Bioinformatics Open-Source Conference SIG
Summary The Bioinformatics Open-Source Conference (BOSC) is held annually as a Special Interest Group with the Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB) conference, hosted by the Open Bioinformatics Foundation (www.open-bio.org). The aims of the conference are: to showcase the work of projects devoted to creating open-source bioinformatics software, or open standards of communication and information management; to facilitate communication and interaction between developers working within projects, and between project members and members of the wider community interested in their projects; and educate the research community on the value of open-source software and open standards. The meeting consists of keynote speakers invited by the BOSC organizing committee for outstanding achievements in Bioinformatics, Open-Source development, or overall research skill; twenty-minute presentations selected from a competetive pool of abstracts submitted for consideration; five-minute lightning-talks and software demonstrations; and Birds of a Feather meetings on specific projects or areas of interest. BOSC 2005 included two keynote speakers: Jason
Stajich, a key developer of the very popular BioPerl software package,
and Hilmar Lapp, speaking on behalf of the Open Bioinformatics Foundation.
Mr. Stajich's talk, 'Building Bioperl: lessons for Open-Source and
Bioinformatics', presented an historical summary of the development
of the BioPerl system, demonstrating the evolution of typical open-source
software projects, and the challenges they face. Dr. Lapp presented
the new organizational structure of the Open Bioinformatics Foundation
as a not-for-profit organization with memberships open to all those
who support their mission at no charge. All participants of BOSC
2005 were given the opportunity to become The full length talk lineup included 15 speakers whose abstracts were chosen from a very competitive group. They demonstrate the diversity and quality of work being done in the open-source bioinformatics community. Highlights include talks on a variety of new tools for managing bioinformatics analyses, and result visualization; discussions of a number of powerful data-mining systems; and many tools designed to use or manage an ever expanding list of web services for bioinformatics. The schedule for BOSC 2005, including links to abstracts, images, and slides, can be accessed at http://open-bio.org/bosc2005/finalProgram. Preparation for BOSC 2006 in Brazil is already
underway. Check the OBF website (www.open-bio.org)
for more details. |
