[BiO BB] Call for Participation: The Second Automated Function Prediction Meeting August 30 -- Sep 1 2006

[Iddo Friedberg]

Call for Participation: Talks, Papers and Posters
The Second Automated Function Prediction Meeting
August 30 -- Sep 1 2006, University of California San Diego

http://biofunctionprediction.org/

Sequence and structure genomics have generated a wealth of data, but 
extracting meaningful information
from genomic information is becoming an increasingly difficult 
challenge. Both the number and the
diversity of discovered genes is increasing. This increase means that 
established annotation methods, such
as homology transfer, are annotating less data. In addition, there is a 
need for annotation which is
standardized so that it could be incorporated into function annotation 
on a large scale. Finally, there is a
need to assess the quality of the function prediction software which is 
out there. We probably know the
sequence of the target for next generation antibiotics or cancer 
treatment. We just don't realize that because
the target is currently annotated as a "domain of unknown function". For 
these reasons and many more,
automated protein function prediction is rapidly gaining interest among 
computational biologists in
academia and industry. The first Automated Function Prediction (AFP) 
meeting was held alongside ISMB
2005, and gathered together some 100 attendees for a full day of talks, 
poster sessions, and a discussion
panel. The second meeting will be a three day event, August 30-September 
1st , 2006 at the campus of
UCSD in San Diego, California.

AFP 2006 will feature:

* Plenary talks delivered by leading researchers in the field
* Conference proceedings published as research papers in BMC Bioinformatics
* A Special discussion panel on gene and protein annotation
* A poster session

Talks and posters are sought in, but not limited to, the following topics:

*Function prediction using sequence  based methods. This would include
"classic" methods such as detection of  functional motifs and inferring 
function
from sequence similarity
* Function from genomic information:  prediction by genomic location;
locus comparison with other organisms; function gain and loss.
* Phylogeny based methods
* Function from molecular interactions
* Function from structure
* Function prediction using combined
methods
* "Meta-talks" discussing the limitations and horizons of computational 
function
prediction.
* Assessing function prediction programs



Authors of abstracts selected for talks would also have the opportunity 
to extend them to full length papers,
which will be reviewed for publication in BMC Bioinformatics in a 
special AFP proceedings section. 
BMC Bioinformatics is an Open Access, peer-reviewed journal that 
considers articles on all aspects of
computational methods used in the analysis and annotation of sequences 
and structures, as well as all other
areas of computational biology. It has an ISI impact factor of 5.42 for 
year 2004.

http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcbioinformatics/



Dates:
Deadline for submission of extended abstracts: April 24, 2006
Notification of acceptance: May 15, 2006

Deadline for poster abstract submission: May 30, 2006.

Registration & fees: to be announced

Please see the web site of the AFP 2006 meeting for further developments 
and announcements.

http://biofunctionprediction.org

The AFP2006 meeting is sponsored by:
The California Institute for Telecommunications and Information 
Technology   http://www.calit2.net/
The Burnham Institute for Medical 
Research                                   http://www.burnham.org
The Systematic Protein Annotation and Modeling 
Project                       http://spam.sdsc.edu

If you are interested in sponsoring the AFP 2006 meeting, please contact 
Iddo Friedberg
(idoerg at burnham.org) to learn about sponsorship opportunities.


Iddo Friedberg, in the name of the AFP 2006 organizing committee

-- 

Iddo Friedberg, Ph.D.
Burnham Institute for Medical Research
10901 N. Torrey Pines Rd.
La Jolla, CA 92037
Tel: (858) 646 3100 x3516
Fax: (858) 713 9949
http://iddo-friedberg.org