Leading Professional Society for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
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ISCB News and Announcements

ISMB 2022

Plan your ISMB 2022 experience today - register for a Tutorial!

REGISTER FOR A TUTORIAL AT ISMB 2022
Deadline: June 30, 2022

Regardless of how you plan to attend, book your registration today!  Tutorials are booking up - reserve your spot before you miss out:

In-person Tutorials (All times CDT):

Virtual Tutorials: (All times CDT) Presented through the ISMB conference platform:

JUNE 2022
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ISMB 2022

Are you ready?  Register Today!
Conference Registration
Open
Our scientific programme is taking shape with 700+ talks and posters!  

Join us for this exciting hybrid conference.  ISCB Members receive a conference registration discount.  Not a member, no problem! You can become a member prior to registering to save or choose membership as part of our nonmember registration package.  
Register to Attend
Register for a Tutorial
June 30
ISMB 2022 will hold a series of in-person and virtual tutorials prior to the start of ISMB 2022 - details on the tutorial program are available at:  https://www.iscb.org/ismb2022-program/tutorials

NoteYou must be registered for the ISMB 2022 conference to attend a Tutorial.
 

In-person Tutorials: (All times CDT)

Virtual Tutorials: (All times CDT) Presented through the ISMB conference platform

Register for a Tutorial
Book your Room in Madison & SAVE
Special rates are available until June 10, 2022!

Book your hotel early to ensure you don’t miss out.

ISMB 2022 Housing available at: 
https://mmxreservations.com/fer/#/Madison?pageCode=ISMB2022

Conference Hotels
ISMB Sustainable Conference Travel Award (SCTA) 
Submit your entry!
The pandemic has shown the scientific community the benefits and limitations of virtual conferences.

As travel and gathering restrictions are eased, ISMB 2022 will be celebrated as an in-person conference. However, there is a growing concern about how to make travel and attendance more sustainable and respectful for the planet.

The ISMB Sustainable Conference Travel Award aims to promote sustainable travel to scientific meetings by rewarding delegates who show environmentally friendly travel to attend the ISMB2022 Conference in Madison, Wisconsin, USA.

Do you have a plan for more sustainable travel to the Madison ISMB2022 conference?

ISMB 2022 Sustainable Conference Travel Award
ISCB Green Pledge
Sign the Pledge!
ISCB is committed to sustainable environmental practices within its organizational operations as we plan and execute Society’s programs. You can help our efforts by taking the ISCB Green Pledge. To pledge your commitment, sign the pledge form, download the ISCB Green Pledge, and track your progress as you attend this conference. Participants will be recognized during the conference and automatically entered into a prize drawing.

Attending Virtually? You can still support our environmentally sustainable efforts by pledging the virtual ISCB Green Pledge! Participants will be recognized during the conference on the virtual platform.
Sign the ISCB Green Pledge
 
 

Mark your calendars for these upcoming events:

COSI Series Webinars:

June 7, 2022 at 11:00 AM EDT - Network-based dynamic modeling of biological systems: toward understanding and control by Reka Albert, Pennsylvania State University - Hosted by SysMod

June 21, 2022 at 11:00 AM EDT - Reconstructing the mutational histories of healthy and cancer genomes by Maria Secrier, University College London - Hosted by TransMed
 
Upcoming Practical Training and Tutorials:

There are no tutorials scheduled at the moment, check back regularly or suggest a presentation.
 
To propose a talk for an ISCBacademy Webinar click here.

ISCBacademy is complimentary to ALL ISCB members!  Join Today!
Register Today!
 
 
FINAL CALL for Workshop and Tutorial Submissions! 
 
Deadline for submissions: June 1, 2022

We invite scientists and professionals working in the fields of bioinformatics and computational biology to submit high-quality proposals for tutorials, workshops or mini-courses (tutorial program) to take place virtually or in-person as part of at the ISCB-Latin America SoIBio BioNetMX 2022.

Workshop & Tutorial Submissions
 
Other Submission Opportunities:
Mark your calendars!
Paper Submissions - Deadline: 28 July, 2022
Abstract Submission - Deadline: 14 September, 2022
Poster Submissions - Deadline: 30 September, 2022
 
Conference Information
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Welcome to ISCB Nucleus, the center for Science, Training, and Networking.

From cell life to groups of family and friends, the Nucleus of anything is its core and central part around which everything is gathered. As such, ISCB offers access into its core through ISCB Nucleus.  Inside ISCB Nucleus, you will find all the archived ISCBacademy webinars and trainings from 2020 – present, as well as live upcoming webinar sessions and training.  You will also find a section where our Communities of Special Interest (COSIs) and Affiliated Regional Groups are featured.  Finally, within the Collaboration Hub you can engage in online dialogue within community specific forums or in the global news feed.  You can network and connect with fellow researchers through our people search, and (coming soon) have impromptu live meet ups. 
 
This ever evolving and expanding platform is a member benefit, giving ISCB members full access to content that is stored within. New content an features will be added as we work to meet the needs of our audience.  ISCB Nucleus also welcomes those outside of our membership to come and engage.  For the best browsing experience, we recommend using Chrome.

To get started:

  • Check your inbox for an email from ISCB Nucleus with your "Magic Link" to log into the platform hosted on JUNO.  Please make sure to double check spam and junk inboxes to ensure  you do not miss the email with instructions. An example of the email can be found below.
  • If you don't see an email, you can easily generate a new Magic Link by clicking the Login button at iscb.junolive.co/Nucleus/Welcome. Enter your email and an email and a new email will be sent to you with your "New Magic Link."
  • Click the link and follow the instructions provided to create your profile and begin experiences ISCB Nucleus.
 
To access the Mobile App:

1. Download from your app store.
2. Click the Magic Link button to access event site.
     
To access the Desktop App:
1. Click the Magic Link button to access event site.

Need help?
Have questions or need help?  Contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
 

GIW XXXI ISCB-Asia V Opens Call for Papers

GIW ISCB-Asia has a rich history as a conference to present and discuss research in computational biology and computational aspects of genomics.  Both theoretical and application oriented research is welcome.

This call is for original research.  Submitted manuscripts will be peer-reviewed for oral presentation at the conference. Any co-author (registered for the conference) can present an accepted submission.  A person may be co-author of multiple submissions, but can only present one of them. 
 
We will also recommend those manuscripts for publication in one of the journals listed below.  Which journal depends on the nature and strength of the manuscript.  Authors are encouraged to let us know their preferences and may opt-out if unhappy with our recommendation.  Publication charges vary by journal and are the responsibility of the authors.

Based on past experience, we expect that most research presented at the conference will be published within a few months of the conference.  But please be aware that journals reserve the right to do further review or even reject recommended manuscripts.

Journals which have agreed to work with us include:

  • Bioinformatics
  • Bioinformatics Advances
  • Journal of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
  • BMC Bioinformatics
  • GigaScience
  • GigaByte

Bioinformatics and GigaScience are highly competitive so at most only a few manuscripts will be published in those journals.  The Journal of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, and BMC Bioinformatics, are well established journals which have published many articles from GIW and ISCB-Asia in the past.  Bioinformatics Advances and GigaByte are new journals with strong organizational support.  We believe they have a bright future.

Submission site: https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=giwiscbasia2022

Submission deadline: August 17, 2022

GIW XXXI/ISCB-Asia V will be held (in-person or virtually) in Tainan, Taiwan from Dec. 12 to 14, 2022. 

 
Learn More / Submit A Paper
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ISCB Congratulates the 2022 Class of Fellows
 
The ISCB Fellows program was created to honor members who have distinguished themselves through outstanding contributions to the fields of computational biology and bioinformatics. Begun in 2009, 2022 marks the 13th anniversary of the program. Each December, ISCB seeks Fellows’ nominations from our members who meet the eligibility criteria for significant scientific and leadership contributions to the field of computational biology and bioinformatics.
 
This year we received many outstanding nominations, each considered carefully by the Fellows Selection Committee members. We are pleased to announce the eleven nominees elected to be this year's Fellows.
 
Barbara Bryant, Senior Director of Bioinformatics, Constellation Pharmaceuticals

For her foundational efforts in shaping ISCB, specifically crafting the early advocacy efforts of ISCB.
 
Sean Eddy, Professor, Harvard University; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

As a founder of modern biological sequence analysis, elected for his fundamental algorithmic contributions, but also for contributing to broader conversations about genomics and the role of "big science" in biology and medicine.
 
Fran Lewitter, Founding Director, Retired, Bioinformatics and Research Computing Department, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research

For her tireless advocation for bioinformatics education and training on behalf of ISCB and the field of bioinformatics and computational biology.
 
Mikhail Gelfand, Professor Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology; Laboratory Head at Institute for Information Transmission Problems

A pioneer of comparative genomics, elected specifically for his work on gene recognition in eukaryotic genomes that led to the first spliced alignment algorithm for gene finding and to the prediction of an unexpectedly high frequency of the alternative splicing in human genes.
 
Takashi Gojobori, Distinguished Professor of Bioscience, Acting Director at the Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

For his development of key methods in molecular evolution, coining the term "nonsynonymous substitution" and co-developing the Nei-Gojobori method for estimating the ratio of the number of nonsynonymous substitutions per non-synonymous site.
 
Trey Ideker, Professor, Departments of Medicine, Bioengineering, and Computer Science, University of California, San Diego 

Recognized for his pioneering work in network biology, specifically applications of network methods to study phenotypes in model organisms and human diseases including cancer, as well as the development of the widely used Cytoscape software for network analysis and visualization. 
 
David Jones, Professor of Bioinformatics, University College London; Director, Bloomsbury Centre for Bioinformatics

A pre-eminent researcher in protein sequence and structure prediction, most notable for his major contributions in protein structure prediction (THREADER & PSIPRED), automatic rapid derivation of new Dayhoff matrices (PET91), covariation analysis of sequence data (PSICOV); the classification of protein folds (CATH) and tools to predict disordered regions and membrane proteins (DISOPRED & MEMSAT).
 
Jun Liu, Professor of Statistics, Harvard University

As an influential leader in Bayesian statistical modeling and computation
with seminal contributions in the theory and method of Markov Chain Monte Carlo and sequential Monte Carlo, which have been created and applied to scientific problems such as motif discovery and cancer genomics, and for his development of widely used tools in bioinformatics and data science.
 
Debora S. Marks, Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Dental Medicine

Recognized for her state-of-the-art approaches exploiting deep learning to predict pathogenicity of human genetic variation, her use of AI technologies and mathematical approaches for biotherapeutic design, and her development of statistical methods that combine theory and computation to extract information from genomic datasets, with recent focus on novel Bayesian deep generative modelling strategies for a wide range of biological applications.
 
Mihai Pop, Professor, Department of Computer Science Director, University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies
University of Maryland, College Park

A leader in the development of algorithms for analyzing metagenomic data, particularly in the context of metagenome assembly and identification of structural variants in assembly graphs, and for his important contributions to large community projects.
 
Reinhard Schneider, Head of Bioinformatics Core Facility, Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB); Professor, University of Luxembourg

Recognized for his significant foundational contributions to both ISCB and the broader bioinformatics communities, specifically the establishment of the ISCB Student Council, the introduction of the ISCB web portal, and the formation of multi-year ISCB membership options. 
 
ISCB will be honoring the 2022 Class of Fellows during the back to in-person ISMB 2022 hybrid conference.

Congratulations, 2022 Class of ISCB Fellows!
 
 
 

ISCB Confers ISCB Fellows Distinction to Mikhail Gelfand

 
 
The International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) bestows one of its highest scientific honors, ISCB Fellow, to Mikhail Gelfand, Ph.D., for his pioneering contributions to bioinformatics research on an international scale, most recently in the area of comparative genomics. 

Bioinformatics and computational biology involve computational analyses of large complex biological data sets e.g. genomes. These analyses play a crucial role in modern-day biology and medicine.
 
Dr. Gelfand is a Professor at Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow, Russia and Laboratory Head at Institute for Information Transmission Problems, Moscow, Russia.  His research specializes in comparative genomics, systems biology, molecular evolution, transcriptomics, and metagenomics.  Dr. Gelfand is a leading pioneer in bioinformatics and computational biology.  His work on gene recognition in eukaryotic genomes, integrating the nucleotide frequency statistics of splicing site and coding/non-coding regions (Gelfand, NAR 1990), led to the first spliced alignment algorithm for gene prediction (Gelfand et al., PNAS 1996) and to predicting an unexpectedly high frequency of the alternative splicing in human genes (Mironov et al., Genome Res. 1999). Gelfand was the first to predict the existence of riboswitches, regulatory RNA structures that change conformation after binding by small molecules (Gelfand et al., Trends Genet. 1999). He also demonstrated that a bacterial ribosome may act as a zinc depot (Panina et al., PNAS 2003) and how TFs find their binding sites in the cell (Kolesov et al, PNAS 2007). Recently, he worked on analysis of genome rearrangements (Moldovan & Gelfand, Front. Microbiol. 2019) and showed that younger pathogens have an increased level of genome rearrangements (Bochkareva et al., PeerJ 2018).
 
Dr. Gelfand’s impact on the field goes beyond research.  He has made fundamental contributions to bioinformatics education in Russia. In 2002, he co-founded the Bioinformatics and Bioengineering Department at the Moscow State University (MSU) – arguably, the first bioinformatics department in the world. As a professor at MSU, he trained a group of Russian bioinformaticians who are now leading bioinformatics research in Russia and beyond. In 2003, Gelfand founded the biennial International Moscow Conference of Computational Molecular Biology, the main bioinformatics conference in Russia which he has been continuously chairing since its inception. Also, each year, he teaches high school students at the Summer School of Molecular and Theoretical Biology. 
 
Without argument, Dr. Mikhail Gelfand embodies the principles of the ISCB Fellow designation, demonstrating excellence in computational biology research and service to the computational biology community.  He is the first member of the Class of 2022 to receive this honor.  
 
About the ISCB Fellows Program:
 
ISCB introduced the ISCB Fellows Program in 2009 to honor members that have distinguished themselves through outstanding contributions to the fields of computational biology and bioinformatics. During the inaugural year of the program, ISCB conferred the Fellow status on the seven winners-to-date of the ISCB Accomplishment by a Senior Scientist Award, and recognized these distinguished scientists during the ISMB/ECCB 2009 conference in Stockholm, Sweden. Since then, ISCB has sought nominations from its community of members, which are reviewed and voted upon by a selection committee. New Fellows are introduced at each year's ISMB conference.      
 
About ISCB:
 
Since its founding in 1997, the International Society for Computational Biology, Inc. (ISCB) has emerged as the leading professional society for participants in the field of computational biology and bioinformatics. Society membership reflects commitment toward the advancement of computational biology. The ISCB is an international non-profit organization whose members come from the global bioinformatics and computational biology communities. The ISCB serves its global membership by providing high-quality meetings, publications, and reports on methods and tools; by disseminating key information about bioinformatics resources and relevant news from related fields; and by actively facilitating training, education, employment, career development, and networking. We advocate and provide leadership for resources and policies in support of scientific endeavors and to benefit society at large.
 
 
 
 
 


ISCB Stands in Solidarity with the People of Ukraine

 
The International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) is shocked by the recent invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation military and condemns in the strongest possible terms this aggression towards a democratic state which posed no threat to the Russian Federation. This war has no reasonable basis. ISCB stands in solidarity with Ukraine and unequivocally supports UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ call to end this senseless war.  He stated on Feb. 23, “I must say, President Putin: In the name of humanity bring your troops back to Russia. In the name of humanity, do not allow to start in Europe what could be the worst war since the beginning of the century, with consequences not only devastating for Ukraine, not only tragic for the Russian Federation, but for the entire world”. Our deepest sympathy goes out to our Ukrainian research colleagues, the Ukrainian people, our Russian research colleagues who have openly condemned the actions of the Russian Federation government and all those around the world who have been affected by this invasion.

ISCB is deeply committed to peace and condemns any form of violence, harassment, and bullying. We are also committed to peaceful co-operation, mutual understanding, and tolerance across borders. ISCB recognizes that the actions of the Russian Federation government are not only crimes against the Ukrainian people but also crimes against the Russian people.  We urge scientists and institutions to avoid cutting ties with Russian scientists — a move that would further increase the isolation of Russian science.

ISCB stands in solidarity with all who are working tirelessly to protect and safeguard democracy, human life and dignity. We continue to hope for reflection, restraint, and a swift end to the crisis.