Conference: Eighth International Conference on Systems Biology (ICSB 2007) to be held October 1-6, 2007 in Long Beach, CA

California Institute Of Technology, Pasadena CA

Investigators

Abstract

This grant provides partial travel support for ten participants attending the Eighth International Conference on Systems Biology (ICSB 2007) which will be held from October 1 to 6, 2007 in Long Beach, CA. ICSB is widely acknowledged as the premiere conference on systems biology. The purpose of the conference is to bring together scientists from a variety of disciplines to discuss creative and innovative approaches to systems biology, the quantitative study of biological processes as whole systems instead of isolated parts. In terms of intellectual merit, issues such as robustness, evolveability, design, and complexity will be featured prominently at ICSB 2007. How does one forward and reverse engineer complex biological systems? These are central challenges in the 21st century, and the meeting will stimulate progress through various aspects of the program. The conference contains eight plenary sessions: (1) Morphogenesis, (2) Mathematical Frontiers, (3) Innovative Approaches, (4) Network Structure and Regulation, (5) Synthetic Biology, (6) Systems Bioinformatics, (7) Student Session, and (8) Systems Biomedicine. The organizers plan to select 25% of the speakers from the pool of submitted abstracts. There will be one day of tutorials and the opening keynote address and reception (October 1) followed by three days (October 2 - 4) of talks including a session consisting exclusively of student speakers, two poster sessions, and two minisymposia. The conference will conclude with two days (October 5 - 6) of workshops. Based on past experience, the meeting will attract an eclectic audience representing a variety of disciplines and stages of career development. A guiding principle of the meeting is encouraging information exchange in an informal atmosphere conducive to brainstorming. Special events include a minisymposium on systems biology education, a special issue of the journal Molecular Systems Biology devoted to the conference, and a tentatively planned inaugural meeting for the new International Society of Systems Biology, which will be a sponsoring organization for future conferences. The conference proceedings will be distributed to attendees in printed form and as a CD-ROM. More information on ICSB 2007 is available on the conference web site (www.icsb-2007.org). An objective of ICSB is to demonstrate that systems biology is for the masses and not just the elite few. The key is to embrace the multidisciplinary nature of biology in the 21st century and the importance of collaborations. In terms of broader impact, the conference will bring together scientists from different intellectual backgrounds, perspectives, cultures, and countries in order to begin to formulate a fundamentally new way of thinking about biology and performing biology research that is accessible to the whole community and that will lead to revolutionary breakthroughs in biotechnology and medicine.