Computational Methods in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology (4th edition)

a thematic track of

EPIA 2015, the XVII Portuguese Conference on Artificial Intelligence

Coimbra, Portugal, September 8-11, 2015

http://epia2015.dei.uc.pt/computational-methods-in-bioinformatics-and-systems-biology/

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Call for Papers

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The success of bioinformatics in recent years has been prompted by

research in molecular biology and medicine in initiatives like the

human genome project. These initiatives gave rise to an enormous

increase in the volume and diversification of data, including protein

and genomic sequences, high-throughput experimental and biomedical

literature. The widespread availability of low-cost, full genome

sequencing, will introduce new challenges to bioinformatics as a key field to enable personalized medicine. New

methods are needed to realize the potential of personalized medicine:

(i) processing large-scale robust genomic data; (ii) interpreting the

functional effect and the impact of genomic variation; (iii)

integrating systems data to relate complex genetic interactions with

phenotypes; and (iv) translating these discoveries into medical

practice.

Systems Biology is a related field, devoted mainly to

efforts in cell modeling, that requires the coordinated efforts of

biological researchers with those related to data analysis,

mathematical modeling, computer simulation and optimization.

The accumulation and exploitation of large-scale databases prompts

for new computational technologies and for research into these

issues. In this context, many widely successful computational models

and tools used by biologists in these initiatives, such as clustering

and classification methods for experimental data, are based on

Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques.

In fact, these methods have been helping in tasks related to knowledge

discovery, modeling and optimization tasks, aiming at the development

of computational models so that the response of biological complex

systems to any perturbation can be predicted. Hence, this workshop

brings the opportunity to discuss applications of AI with an

interdisciplinary character, exploring the interactions between

sub-areas of AI, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology.

Topics and Technical issues

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Computational areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

– Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining techniques;

– Text Mining and Language Processing;

– Machine Learning and Pattern Recognition;

– Rough, Fuzzy and Hybrid Techniques;

– Hidden Markov Models;

– Bayesian Approaches;

– Artificial Neural Networks;

– Support Vector Machines;

– Evolutionary Computing;

– Non-linear dynamical analysis methods and Intelligent signal processing

Biological areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

– Sequence analysis, comparison and alignment methods;

– Motif, gene and signal recognition;

– Molecular evolution, phylogenetics and phylogenomics;

– Determination or prediction of the structure of RNA and protein in two and three dimensions;

– Inference/ reconstruction of metabolic/ regulatory networks or models;

– Analysis of high-throughput biological data (trancriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, fluxomics);

– Functional genomics;

– Molecular docking and drug design;

– Problems in population genetics such as linkage and QTL analysis, linkage disequilibrium analysis in populations, and haplotype determination;

– Metabolic engineering applications.

Submissions should address relevant biological/ biomedical research problems, through computational techniques, making original

contributions at the fundamental or applied levels.

Paper submission

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Submitted papers should be full-length papers with a maximum length of

12 pages. The best papers will be published in a volume of Lecture

Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNAI) by Springer (proceedings

indexed by the Thomson ISI Web of Knowledge). All other accepted

papers will be published in the local proceedings.

All papers should be submitted in PDF format through EPIA’2015

Conference Management Website:

http://epia2015.dei.uc.pt/call-for-papers/

All papers should be prepared according to the formatting instructions

of Springer LNAI series. The review process is

double-blind. Therefore, authors must remove their names from the

submitted papers and should take reasonable care not to indirectly

disclose their identity. References to own work may be included in

the paper, as long as referred to in the third person. Three program

committee members will be assigned to review each paper. Acceptance

will be based on the paper’s significance, technical quality, clarity,

relevance and originality. Accepted papers must be presented at the

conference by one of the authors and at least one author of each

accepted paper must register for the conference.

Important Dates:

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– Deadline for paper submission: March 9, 2015

– Notification of paper acceptance: April 27, 2015

– Deadline for final versions: June 1, 2015

– Conference days: September 8-11

Organising comittee

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Miguel Rocha

Universidade do Minho, Portugal

mrocha@di.uminho.pt

Rui Camacho

Universidade do Porto, Portugal

rcamacho@fe.up.pt

Sara Madeira

Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal

sara.madeira@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

José Luis Oliveira

Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal

jlo@ua.pt