Network Biology

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

Computational molecular biology has developed dramatically over the last two decades, and is by now an established discipline providing many insights into the mechanisms of disease and the functioning of living cells. Network Biology aims to understand the web of interactions among cellular components, which affect all activities and disease. Only by understanding these interactions (among genes, proteins, RNAs, complexes and other molecules) can a higher level of understanding of organismal function, dynamics and development be achieved. Further, cellular networks provide a holistic framework within which to interpret other high-throughput heterogeneous measurements (e.g., expression levels, mutations, chemical modifications, etc.) that are being collected across organisms, individuals, cell types and conditions, and increasingly at the level of individual cells. It is expected that this workshop will enhance communication among biologists, medical scientists, computer scientists and mathematicians interested in network biology. This workshop will bring together a diverse set of scientists focused on inferring and analyzing cellular networks, using a wide range of techniques including wet-lab experiments, graph algorithms, combinatorial optimization, machine learning and statistics. This activity can be of great benefit both to theoretical computer science, via the exposure to and infusion of new problems, and to computational biologists, who will be exposed to state of the art theoretical developments.