Computational Methods in Systems Biology University of Trento 24-26 February, 2003 Rovereto, Italy www.science.unitn.it/~priami/cmsb.html
Molecular biology has until now mainly focussed on individual molecules, on their properties as isolated entities or as complexes in very simple model systems. However, biological molecules in living systems participate in very complex networks, including regulatory networks for gene expression, intracellular metabolic networks and both intra- and intercellular communication networks. Such networks are involved in the maintenance (homeostasis) as well as the differentiation of cellular systems of which we have a very incomplete understanding. Nevertheless, the progress of molecular biology has made possible the detailed description of the components that constitute living systems, notably genes and proteins. Large scale genome sequencing means that we can (at least in principle) delimneate all macromolecular components of a given cellular system, and microarray experiments as well as large scale proteomics will soon give us large amounts of experimental data on gene regulation, molecular interactions and cellular networks. The challenge of the 21st century will be to understand how these individual components integrate to complex systems and the function and evolution of these systems, thus scaling up from molecular biology to systems biology. By combining experimental data with advanced formal theories from computer science, "the formal language for biological systems" to specify dynamic models of interacting molecular entities would be essential for 1. understanding normal behaviour of cellular processes, and how changes may affect the processes and cause disease. It may be possible to correlate genetic properties and symptoms in new and more efficient ways, based on an actual understanding of how various processes interact. 2. Providing predictability and flexibility to academic, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical researchers studying gene or protein functions. In particular, it may save time by reducing the number of experiments needed, if inadequate hypotheses could be excluded by computer simulation.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
Modelling languages for Systems Biology Concurrency theory in Systems Biology Constraint programming in Systems Biology Logical methods in Systems Biology Formal methods to analyse biomolecular systems Quantitative analysis of biomolecular systems Simulation techniques for Systems Biology Case studies
IMPORTANT DATES
Nov 9, 2002 Submission deadline for papers and demos Nov 30, 2002 Notification of acceptance Dec 16, 2002 Camera-ready version due
PROCEEDINGS The proceedings will be published in the Springer LNCS series and will be available at the workshop.
SUBMISSION Authors are invited to submit .ps or .pdf original research papers as well as survey or tutorial papers of no more than 12 pages in LNCS format (see http://www.springer.de/comp/lncs/authors.html for instructions) at the address concini@dit.unitn.it For further information please contact us at the addresses [concini,priami]@dit.unitn.it. The papers will pass a peer review process and the accepted ones will appear in the proceedings.
INVITED SPEAKERS
Ehud Shapiro, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel To be announced
PROGRAMME COMMITTEE
Charles Auffray, CNRS, Villejuif (F) Cosima Baldari, Università di Siena (I) Alexander Bockmayr, Université Henri Poincaré, Nancy (F) Luca Cardelli, Microsoft Research Cambridge (UK) Vincent Danos, Université Paris VII (F) Pierpaolo Degano, Università di Pisa (I) François Fages, INRIA Rocquencourt (F) Drabløs Finn, , Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim (N) Monika Heiner, Brandenburg University of Technology at Cottbus - (D) Ina Koch, University of Applied Sciences Berlin, (D). John E. Ladbury, University College London (UK) Patrick Lincoln, SRI (USA) Satoru Miyano, University of Tokyo (JP) Gordon Plotkin, University of Edinburgh (UK) Simon Plyte, Pharmacia Corporation (I) Corrado Priami (CHAIR), Università di Trento (I) Aviv Regev, Weizmann Institute of Science (IL) Magali Roux-Rouquié, BSMI Pasteur Institute (F) Vincent Schachter, Hybrigenics Paris (F) Masaru Tomita, Keio University (JP) Adelinde Uhrmacher, University of Rostock (D) Alfonso Valencia, CNB-CSIC Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia, Cantoblanco Madrid, (E) Olaf Wolkenhauer, UMIST, Manchester (UK)
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Linda Brodo, Michela de Concini, Corrado Priami, Debora Schuch da Rosa Machado --