ISCB Buzz: Latest News, Events and Announcements

Upcoming Conferences -- Mark Your Calendars!

ISMB 2018 July 6 – 10, 2018 Chicago, Illinois	ECCB 2018 Sept 8 – 12, 2018 Athens, Greece	ISCB-LA SOIBIO EMBnet 2018 Nov 5 – 9, 2018 Viña del Mar, Chile	ROCKY 2018 December 6 - 8, 2018 Aspen/Snowmass Colorado	RECOMB/ISCB Conference on Regulatory and Systems Genomics, with DREAM December 8 - 10, 2018 New York City, USA

Save the Date: Chicago Genomics and Data Science Hackathon
From 11-13 July 2018, the NCBI will help out with a Data Science hackathon on the Northwestern School of Medicine Campus in Downtown Chicago! The hackathon will focus on genomics as well as general Data Science analyses including text, image and sequence processing. This event is for researchers, including students and postdocs, who have already engaged in the use of large datasets or in the development of pipelines for analyses from high-throughput experiments. Some projects are available to other non-scientific developers, mathematicians, or librarians.


Register & SAVE!  Early Bird Registration Deadline June 7, 2018
Planning on attending ISMB 2018 in Chicago?  Register today before the early bird registration deadline and SAVE! Read through the program preview!  Join us in Chicago to connect, engage, and inspire!

Recruit - Engage - Inform!
Did you know the ISMB exhibit hall is more than just a place to learn and discover new products and services? It is also a place to promote your university's degree programs or open positions within research laboratories!


ISCB-LA Call for Papers and Abstracts
This call is an open invitation to 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) at the ISCB-Latin America, SoIBio and EMBnet Joint Bioinformatics Conference 2018 (ISCB-LA SoIBio EMBnet). Submit your research today!

ASHG/IGES/ISCB Joint Symposium: Working with Big Data in the Cloud--Research and Privacy

Launch of All of Us Research Program
Enrollment for the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program is officially open! The All of Us Research Program is a momentous effort to advance individualized prevention, treatment and care for people of all backgrounds. The program’s goal is to enroll 1 million or more volunteers, and oversample communities that have been underrepresented in research to make the program the largest, most diverse resource of its kind.


ISCB Leadership Nominations
Call for nominations for Treasurer and Vice President.
Only members can nominate; self-nominations are not allowed.


Calling Principal Investigators to Host Internships!
The ISCB Student Council (ISCB-SC) is currently soliciting principal investigators (PIs) to host internships through the SC’s Internships Program. The program connects students in developing nations with PIs in developed countries to gain hands-on short-term research experience. These internships benefit the intern as well as the host lab both scientifically but also culturally. The program launched in 2009 and is committed to providing computational biology training for students from developing nations and improving competencies in the field. If you’re interested in hosting an internship or would like to know more about the internships program you can read our recently published article in PLOS Computational Biology [1], visit internships.iscbsc.org.


ISCB Art in Science
The ISCB Art in Science Competition is a way to show the beauty of science in art form. ISCB invites submission to the 2018 ISCB Art in Science competition. All interested members (hereafter referred to as "artists") may submit images that have been generated as part of a research project and other creative efforts that involve scientific concepts or employ scientific tools and methods. Learn more at www.iscb.org/iscb-art-in-science-competition.
 

Missing GLBIO this year?
We are too but very excited for GLBIO 2019 in Madison. In the meantime, take a look at the GLBio PLOS ONE Collection (http://collections.plos.org/s/glbio) and we look forward to seeing you at ISMB 2018 in Chicago!


OUP Open Access Discount! 
ISCB works closely with OUP Bioinformatics to reduce open access charges. ISCB is pleased to announce that OUP Bioinformatics will now offer a 15% discount on open access charges for all ISCB members. The discount will be applied after acceptance and requires author noting that he/she is an ISCB member. Not a member? Join today!


ISCB Journal Subscription Discounts - New Titles Added
All ISCB members interested in subscribing to print or online issues of traditional subscription-based journals receive a discount on subscriptions to the journals highlighted below. Student members are entitled to additional discounts, when available. To subscribe, log into My ISCB and select the Subscribe to Journal menu item located on the left-hand menu. Take advantage of this DISCOUNT and order your journal TODAY!


ISCB Career Center
The ISCB Career Center - Connecting you to your career! It is the place to post a job, search for a job, or upload your resume. Job posting and resume upload is complimentary for members. Nonmember may also participate for a nominal fee.


ISCB Membership:
Not yet a member of ISCB? Don't keep missing out on conference discounts, access to incredible science and so much more! Click here for all membership benefits and further details!


Shop while you Support ISCB on AmazonSmile:
AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support ISCB every time you shop, at no cost to you. When you shop at smile.amazon.com, you’ll find the exact same low prices, vast selection and convenient shopping experience as Amazon.com, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to ISCB!

ISMB 2018
Call For Technology Talks!

Beware ISMB 2018 Conference Hotel Room Scam

Call For Technology Talks!

Promote Your Innovative Tools, Methods, Service at ISMB 2018!

Call for Tech Talks Closes May 10!

1500+ attendees from 50+ countries

ISMB attracts top international scientists and key decision makers in the lifesciences from the world’s
largest and most prestigious research institutions and companies.

**Innovation Forum Members receive 50% off! Contact Andy Falter (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) for more information!*


Join us in Chicago to connect, engage, and inspire!

SHARE ON FACEBOOK	FOLLOW ON TWITTER	VISIT OUR PAGE

ISCB Response to NIH Proposed Data Science Strategic Plan

To capitalize on the opportunities presented by advances in data science, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is developing a Strategic Plan for Data Science.  This plan describes NIH's overarching goals, strategic objectives, and implementation tactics for promoting the modernization of the NIH-funded biomedical data science ecosystem.  As part of the planning process, NIH has published a draft of the strategic plan today, along with a Request for Information (RFI) to seek input from stakeholders, including members of the scientific community, academic institutions, the private sector, health professionals, professional societies, advocacy groups, patient communities, as well as other interested members of the public.  ISCB's Public Affairs and Policy Committee submitted a response to the drafted strategic plan on behalf of ISCB.

The Committee found that the plan provides a framework to deal with data science challenges and recognizes the importance of data sciences to the overall success in meeting the NIH mission.  Continuing the emphasis areas of Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) initiative, it is highly positive that the Plan recognizes data standards, interoperability, infrastructure, and training as critical focus areas. In addition, the goals of defining different and appropriate funding mechanisms and reviewing criteria for data-science efforts will resolve some major impediments within the current NIH funding ecosystem.

However, as outlined in the suggestions below, the Proposed Strategic Plan needs to provide a more concrete and detailed roadmap in its rather unique treatment of:

1) distinction of databases and knowledge bases and their funding models;
2) separation of software tool development from repositories and curation efforts; and
3) a limited representation of the challenges of data use globally. Considering that databases, information portals, knowledge bases, and tool developers represent a significant portion of a highly heterogeneous scientific data ecosystem, imposing binary funding distinctions may lead to dysfunctional or simply unworkable solutions.

The conclusion (or view) of the ISCB is that the Proposed Strategic Plan is a much needed step in the right direction, but that before long term funding policy decisions are made, there is a need for strong community input and buy-in to expand on the specifics and possible unforeseen consequences of vague definitions and distinctions as discussed in the changes suggested below.

Eliminate Separation of Databases from Knowledge Bases

We recognize that the distinction between "databases" and "knowledgebases" is stressed in the Strategic Plan as a way of differentiating funding mechanisms. However, the wide variety of information portals renders such a binary distinction highly artificial.  The Strategic Plan states that a DB makes available the "core data" (no definition is offered) of some biological system, whereas a KB organizes information "related to core datasets," and states that KBs typically require significant curation whereas DBs do not.  Model organism DBs (MODs) are cited as an example of DBs, yet MODs have undergone hundreds of person-years of curation efforts – an apparent contradiction. MODs are Knowledgebases.  Perhaps the confusion is between 'data stores' where data are not curated and there is minimal metadata assignments, and 'knowledgebases' where many relevant data stores are integrated and curated soas to facilitate the full use of the data for computational analysis.

This notion that "core data" is the key differentiating feature is not widely accepted among practitioners in the field and is quite vague.  For example, the transcriptome is listed as core data (belonging to DBs), whereas an expression pattern is listed as belonging to KBs.  But no clear separation into core versus related-to-core data is obvious in the following list of datatypes present in one well-known biological data/knowledge-base: genes, promoters, transcription factor binding sites, terminators, operons, metabolites, enzymatic reactions, transport reactions, metabolic pathways, gene essentiality data.  Since the Strategic Plan now seems to advocate that no efforts should be funded that combine both core data and non-core data, presumably the preceding data/knowledge-base project (and most MODs as well) must be divided into two separate projects. Such an element of the Plan would create a major obstacle for the information integration that is so valued by end users.  In reality, a continuum exists between DBs and KBs, and attempts to find a reliable place on that continuum to define a funding policy would prove challenging and troublesome and may have to be abandoned.

Proposed Separation of Software Tool Development

We see the proposal to "Separate support for tools development from support for databases and knowledgebases" as quite problematic because in practice the developments of many tools (software) and DBs/KBs are tightly intertwined and their separation may be both impossible and ill advised.  Often, tools developed independently from the participation of the DB/KB community fail to actively incorporate data and data updates and fall into dis-use.

For example, if a grant application is designed to develop the first DB for metabolomics data, it would be critical for this effort to develop software for parsing submitted data, validating submitted data, enabling curators to add and modify descriptions of the experimental conditions, storing submitted data to a database management system, and for powering a user website that allowed users to submit queries and view query results.  Without such software, the DB could not be populated, checked for accuracy, nor made available to users.  Without the software, there is no database! It is not clear whether the Strategic Plan mean s to imply that every DB/KB project must involve two grant applications, one for the software and one for the DB/KB, but we do not consider this to be an advisable process.

Another problem with this idea is the apparent underlying assumption that any third party can easily write software tools for a given database. This is not the case because e very database has a schema – a precise computer definition of each type of data stored in the database (e.g., genes, proteins, metabolites) , and t he schema for a given database will change over time.  Each software tool written for a given database must manipulate the data using exactly the same schema as the database currently uses, otherwise the database and the software will be incompatible.

We suspect that one motivation for the separation idea might be the notion that DB/KB grantees would include software development tasks to try to bolster the innovative appearance, and yet reviewers who appreciate the importance of the database might feel that the entire project needs to be scored highly, even when the proposed software is weak, to ensure the funding of an important database.  Based on such assumptions, we suggest three alternative ways to view and solve this problem:

(1) The assumption seems to be that DB/KB applicants frequently include poor quality tool development tasks in their proposals.  It is likely that in most of the proposals the inclusion of high quality tool development tasks leads to high (better) scores because the proposed tasks are excellent.  Do data exist regarding the frequency of high versus low-quality tool components in DB/KB applications?
(2) If NIH develops improved review criteria for DB/KB applications that decrease the weighting and/or necessity of innovation, both grantees and reviewers will need to put less emphasis on innovation, which should largely solve the problem.
(3) Particularly for large projects, reviewers should be encouraged to recommend excising project elements that they consider poor quality, to enable awarding of high scores to the remaining project elements.  Imagine a DB application with an excellent operational plan but a weak plan for developing an innovative software tool.  Everyone is served by continuing funding for the DB as a whole but not funding the software tool: users enjoy continued operation of the DB; the project retains highly skilled staff members.  The grantees should be given an opportunity to resubmit the component for the software tool for later funding consideration.  But: excision of project components must be performed judiciously.

ISMB 2018
Early Registration Deadline Approaching - June 7!

Numerous Reasons - Don't miss out on the premier bioinformatics conference of the year!

The Science – Choose from ISCB COSI ISMB Tracks, over 700 posters, and keynotes representing a multidisciplinary forum for the dissemination of the latest developments in computational biology/bioinformatics. -Explore the Program-

Connect – Meet and Collaborate with over 1,600 scientists representing more than 50 countries from computer science, molecular biology, mathematics, statistics and related fields.

Professional Development – NEW THIS YEAR ISMB Career Fair! Host a table, post a job, find the talent to propel your organization.
 

SHARE ON FACEBOOK	FOLLOW ON TWITTER	VISIT OUR PAGE

ISCB-LA SoIBio EMBnet 2018
CALL FOR TUTORIALS, WORKSHOPS, AND MINI-COURSES!

	APRIL 2018
	30
	WORKSHOP SUBMISSIONS
	KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
	LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CONFERENCE

CALL FOR TUTORIALS, WORKSHOPS, AND MINI-COURSES!

Submit high quality proposals for tutorials, workshops or mini-courses to the ISCB-Latin America, SoIBio and EMBnet Joint Bioinformatics Conference 2018

Proposals should be submitted via the online form by 30 April, 2018

The tutorial program provides participants with lectures and instruction covering either basic training for bioinformatics, well-established technologies/analyses or new "cutting-edge" topics relevant to bioinformatics and computational biology.

ISCB Buzz: Latest News, Events & Announcements

UPCOMING CONFERENCES

ISMB 2018 July 6 – 10, 2018 Chicago, Illinois	ECCB 2018 Sept 8 – 12, 2018 Athens, Greece	ISCB-LA SOIBIO EMBnet 2018 Nov 5 – 9, 2018 Viña del Mar, Chile	ROCKY 2018 SAVE THE DATE December 6 - 8, 2018 Aspen/Snowmass Colorado

Hot off the E-press: The Spring Newsletter!
Just released - the Spring Newsletter is here.  Read through the ISMB 2018 exciting program line-up, updates from within the scientific community, society updates and learn more about exciting new initiatives to come!.


Book Your Room!  Deadline June 5, 2018
Attending ISMB 2018?  Book your hotel today and save! ISMB 2018 will be held at the Hyatt Regency Chicago and is the Headquarters Hotel.  Attendees that book in the block receive complimentary Internet access and 40% off parking.

Calling Principal Investigators to Host Internships!
The ISCB Student Council (ISCB-SC) is currently soliciting principal investigators (PIs) to host internships through the SC’s Internships Program. The program connects students in developing nations with PIs in developed countries to gain hands-on short-term research experience. These internships benefit the intern as well as the host lab both scientifically but also culturally. The program launched in 2009 and is committed to providing computational biology training for students from developing nations and improving competencies in the field. If you’re interested in hosting an internship or would like to know more about the internships program you can read our recently published article in PLOS Computational Biology [1], visit internships.iscbsc.org.


ISCB Leadership Nominations and Elections
Call for nominations for Treasurer and Vice President, and for Board of Directors. Student Council Leadership positions for Chair, Chair-elect, Treasurer, Secretary, and representative to the Board of Directors.
Only members can nominate; self-nominations are not allowed.


ISCB Art in Science
The ISCB Art in Science Competition is a way to show the beauty of science in art form. ISCB invites submission to the 2018 ISCB Art in Science competition. All interested members (hereafter referred to as "artists") may submit images that have been generated as part of a research project and other creative efforts that involve scientific concepts or employ scientific tools and methods. Learn more at www.iscb.org/iscb-art-in-science-competition.
 

FASEB (Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology) Member Assessment
ISCB is a member of FASEB.  We kindly ask for your assistance in assessing our relationship with FASEB by completing this survey - https://goo.gl/Xy7QyR.  The goal of this survey is to better understand how FASEB impacts ISCB members and what more FASEB could do for ISCB.


Register Now for RECOMB2018 Workshop!
The meeting will focus on proteogenomics, single cell systems biology and cancer epidemiology, and how crowdsourced science, data sharing and a culture of collaboration can help advance research in these fields. We will highlight the solutions of the top performing strategies in the Epidemium program in cancer epidemiology and the recent NCI-CPTAC Proteogenomics DREAM Challenge. We will also brainstorm as a community on the possibility of organizing a DREAM challenge on Single Cell Systems Biology, and have a RAMPChallenge Hands on Session. REGISTER NOW AT http://recomb2018.fr/registration/


Missing GLBIO this year?
We are too but very excited for GLBIO 2019 in Madison.  In the meantime,  take a look at the GLBio PLOS ONE Collection (http://collections.plos.org/s/glbio) and we look forward to seeing you at ISMB 2018 in Chicago!


OUP Open Access Discount! 
ISCB works closely with OUP Bioinformatics to reduce open access charges. ISCB is pleased to announce that OUP Bioinformatics will now offer a 15% discount on open access charges for all ISCB members. The discount will be applied after acceptance and requires author noting that he/she is an ISCB member. Not a member? Join today!


ISCB Journal Subscription Discounts - New Titles Added
All ISCB members interested in subscribing to print or online issues of traditional subscription-based journals receive a discount on subscriptions to the journals highlighted below. Student members are entitled to additional discounts, when available. To subscribe, log into My ISCB and select the Subscribe to Journal menu item located on the left-hand menu. Take advantage of this DISCOUNT and order your journal TODAY!


ISCB Career Center
The ISCB Career Center - Connecting you to your career! It is the place to post a job, search for a job, or upload your resume. Job posting and resume upload is complimentary for members. Nonmember may also participate for a nominal fee.


ISCB Membership:
Not yet a member of ISCB? Don't keep missing out on conference discounts, access to incredible science and so much more! Click here for all membership benefits and further details!


Shop while you Support ISCB on AmazonSmile:
AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support ISCB every time you shop, at no cost to you. When you shop at smile.amazon.com, you’ll find the exact same low prices, vast selection and convenient shopping experience as Amazon.com, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to ISCB!

Final Call for ISCB Officers and Board of Directors Nominations!

Call for ISCB Board of Directors Nominations Deadline: April 23, 2018
Call for ISCB Officer Nominations Deadline: May 21, 2018

The International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) is encouraging members to submit nominations for the Society’s leadership - Board of Directors, Student Council, and open Officer positions.  Nominations are submitted at www.iscb.org/nominate (you must login to your membership record to access the nomination form). In all cases, self-nominations will not be accepted.

If you know of excellent candidates that meet the eligibility requirements, please be sure to submit your nomination(s). Details of the positions, procedures, requirements, and timeline are available on the ISCB website at: www.iscb.org/leadership-nominations-and-elections.

We are looking forward to an active participation by the ISCB membership in the nomination and election process, and we thank you in advance for your qualified nominations.

Final Hours to Submit to ISMB 2018! ISCB Buzz: Latest News, Events & Announcements

UPCOMING CONFERENCES

NGS 2018 April 9 – 11, 2018 Barcelona, Spain	RECOMB 2018 April 21 – 24, 2018 Paris	ISMB 2018 July 6 – 10, 2018 Chicago, Illinois	ECCB 2018 Sept 8 – 12, 2018 Athens, Greece

FINAL HOURS to present your research at ISMB 2018!
We invite abstracts for research that is topical to bioinformatics and computational biology, which is new or in progress (unpublished, formally Late-Breaking Research) or has been published after January 1, 2017 (previously Highlights Track) for consideration for oral and/or poster presentation. review the Communities of Special Interest (COSI) Track information and submit to the COSI that most accurately reflects the area of the work.


Mark Your Calendars for InCOB18!
On behalf of the Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Network (APBioNet) and organizing partners, it is our great honour to invite you to join the 17th International Conference On BioInformatics (InCOB-2018), which will be held on 26-28 September, 2018 at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi.  Since 2002, InCoB has grown in its second decade to become one of the largest bioinformatics conferences in the Asia-Pacific region. This annual conference showcases the latest research and technologies in all areas of bioinformatics, and in recent years has been attended by practitioners from both biology fields and computing backgrounds in the Asia-Pacific region. As in the past, papers in the conference will be published in international, peer-reviewed journals, such as BMC Bioinformatics, BMC Systems Biology, BMC Genomics, Bioinformatics and PeerJ. Oral and poster presenters will have the opportunity to deposit their slides/posters with F1000 Posters.

Calling Principal Investigators to Host Internships!
The ISCB Student Council (ISCB-SC) is currently soliciting principal investigators (PIs) to host internships through the SC’s Internships Program. The program connects students in developing nations with PIs in developed countries to gain hands-on short-term research experience. These internships benefit the intern as well as the host lab both scientifically but also culturally. The program launched in 2009 and is committed to providing computational biology training for students from developing nations and improving competencies in the field. If you’re interested in hosting an internship or would like to know more about the internships program you can read our recently published article in PLOS Computational Biology [1], visit internships.iscbsc.org.


ISCB Leadership Nominations and Elections
Call for nominations for Treasurer and Vice President, and for Board of Directors. Student Council Leadership positions for Chair, Chair-elect, Treasurer, Secretary, and representative to the Board of Directors.
Only members can nominate; self-nominations are not allowed.


ISCB Art in Science
The ISCB Art in Science Competition is a way to show the beauty of science in art form. ISCB invites submission to the 2018 ISCB Art in Science competition. All interested members (hereafter referred to as "artists") may submit images that have been generated as part of a research project and other creative efforts that involve scientific concepts or employ scientific tools and methods. Learn more at www.iscb.org/iscb-art-in-science-competition.
 

Register Now for RECOMB2018-DREAM Workshop!
The meeting will focus on proteogenomics, single cell systems biology and cancer epidemiology, and how crowdsourced science, data sharing and a culture of collaboration can help advance research in these fields. We will highlight the solutions of the top performing strategies in the Epidemium program in cancer epidemiology and the recent NCI-CPTAC Proteogenomics DREAM Challenge. We will also brainstorm as a community on the possibility of organizing a DREAM challenge on Single Cell Systems Biology, and have a RAMPChallenge Hands on Session. REGISTER NOW AT http://recomb2018.fr/registration/


Missing GLBIO this year?
We are too but very excited for GLBIO 2019 in Madison.  In the meantime,  take a look at the GLBio PLOS ONE Collection (http://collections.plos.org/s/glbio) and we look forward to seeing you at ISMB 2018 in Chicago!


OUP Open Access Discount! 
ISCB works closely with OUP Bioinformatics to reduce open access charges. ISCB is pleased to announce that OUP Bioinformatics will now offer a 15% discount on open access charges for all ISCB members. The discount will be applied after acceptance and requires author noting that he/she is an ISCB member. Not a member? Join today!


ISCB Journal Subscription Discounts - New Titles Added
All ISCB members interested in subscribing to print or online issues of traditional subscription-based journals receive a discount on subscriptions to the journals highlighted below. Student members are entitled to additional discounts, when available. To subscribe, log into My ISCB and select the Subscribe to Journal menu item located on the left-hand menu. Take advantage of this DISCOUNT and order your journal TODAY!


ISCB Career Center
The ISCB Career Center - Connecting you to your career! It is the place to post a job, search for a job, or upload your resume. Job posting and resume upload is complimentary for members. Nonmember may also participate for a nominal fee.


ISCB Membership:
Not yet a member of ISCB? Don't keep missing out on conference discounts, access to incredible science and so much more! Click here for all membership benefits and further details!


Shop while you Support ISCB on AmazonSmile:
AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support ISCB every time you shop, at no cost to you. When you shop at smile.amazon.com, you’ll find the exact same low prices, vast selection and convenient shopping experience as Amazon.com, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to ISCB!

ISMB 2018 Call for Abstracts!
Present your research at ISMB 2018!
Abstract Submission Deadline:  April 5, 2018

We invite abstracts for research that is topical to bioinformatics and computational biology, which is new or in progress (unpublished, formally Late-Breaking Research) or has been published after January 1, 2017 (previously Highlights Track) for consideration for oral and/or poster presentation.

First, review the Communities of Special Interest (COSI) Track information and submit to the COSI that most accurately reflects the area of the work. (During the submission process you may also select other COSIs where your work may also be suitable for presentation.)

Talks and posters are organized according to scientific topics which are covered by the COSIs. Please note, abstracts are not limited to COSI topics and if the topic of your submission falls outside the listed COSIs you can choose the "General Computational Biology" area. Your abstract should convey a scientific result and should not be an advertisement for any commercial software package - this type of abstract should be submitted into the technology track.