EITC-2004, Bioinformatics Workshop Objectives

The world is in the midst of an information and communication technological revolution that is transforming almost every aspect of our lives. The intersection of information technology and biotechnology has become critically important because of the vast amount of data involved in the study of biology. Bioinformatics is very much a discipline in expansion as evidenced by the convergence of Biology, Computer Science, Information and Communication Technology, Mathematics and Statistics.

Bioinformatics highlights the application of statistics, data mining, artificial intelligence, neural networks, machine learning and natural language processing techniques to computationally difficult problems in molecular biology. It is dedicated to provide researchers the knowledge and skills necessary for the invention of algorithms and the creation of computational systems that facilitate the understanding of biological processes and application of these tools and methods to individuals and communities through public health and prevention programs. The Human Genome Project has transformed molecular biology into an information-based science. However, the lack of agreement over the number of human genes, even with the genome essentially complete, depicts the difficulty of certainty in biology and points to the need for substantially better algorithms and validation techniques. It is envisaged that bioinformatics will help to advance biomedical research in silico.

The bioinformatics approaches to biotechnology have broadened the conventional ability to study genomics and proteomics. Pharmacogenomics and pharmacogenetics approaches have further advanced drug discovery and drug development, and disease diagnostics device development. Investigation of the relationship between inter-individual genetic variability (polymorphism) in drug response (including efficacy and safety) or drug metabolism has moved forward the practice of molecular biology and the view of the future potential of medicine such as individualized medicine. Analogous to high throughput/data intensive analytical methods for genomic research, the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array technology will rely on the bioinformatics and statistical algorithms to properly define SNP haplotypes so as to understand individual profiles, which entail individual susceptibility to drug toxicity and/or drug response.

The Bioinformatics Track of EITC-2004 will focus on the current bioinformatics research and development frontiers in both academia and industry, with leading scientist presenting on issues like gene annotation, protein annotation, data integration, tool integration, and data analysis and data mining algorithm development. It will engage dialogues across disciplines and invite discussions in the forefront of the exciting biomedical informatics research.