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    The Fourth International Conference on Computational Biology:

            Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology '96

                            June 12 to 15, 1996
              Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri USA

The Fourth International Conference on Computational Biology:
Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology '96 (ISMB '96) will take
place at Washington University, St.  Louis, Missouri, USA from 
June 12 to 16, 1996.  Papers due February 1, 1996.

URL
	http://ibc.wustl.edu/ismb96

Purpose

The purpose of the ISMB conference is to disseminate the latest
developments in computational molecular biology and biophysics and to
stimulate new research on the application of intelligent computational
systems to problems in molecular biology. ISMB is a multidisciplinary
conference bringing together scientists from computer science,
mathematics, statistics, and molecular biology. The scope extends to
any computational method or system supporting a biological task that is
algorithmically, cognitively or conceptually challenging, involves a
synthesis of heterogeneous information, or exhibits the emergent
properties of an "intelligent system." From a computational
perspective, areas of interest include adaptive systems, intelligent
experimental control, data modeling, machine learning, artificial
intelligence, combinatorics, stochastic optimization, string & graph
algorithms, linguistic methods, and parallel computer technologies.
Biological areas of interest include molecular structure, genomics,
molecular sequence analysis, evolution and phylogenetics, adaptive
experimental systems, and molecular biology generally. Emphasis is
placed on the validation of methods using real data sets and on
practical application in the biological sciences.

The ISMB conference has attracted large and enthusiastic audiences of
scientists involved in application areas including artificial
intelligence, structural biology, DNA, RNA and protein sequence
analysis and structure prediction, genome mapping, gene identification,
molecular biology data and knowledge bases, and modeling of
biochemical processes. We are continuing the tradition of soliciting
original papers which will be rigorously refereed and published (by
AAAI Press and the MIT Press) in proceedings available at the
conference.  The conference proceedings are indexed in the Medline
database.

The four-day conference will feature introductory and advanced
tutorials (on June 12th), and presentations of original refereed
papers, posters and invited talks (on June 13-15).

Special Genomics Session for '96

Whole Genomes: Challenges and Implications

As a special feature, a session for computing on the genome is being
introduced for ISMB-96. This session is meant to stimulate new and
interesting ideas and to bring new participants into the meeting. There
will be ample opportunity in the remainder of the conference for papers
from all areas including structural biology, molecular design, and
molecular modeling, knowledge representation, machine learning and
computational theory.

Tremendous advances have been made in the Human Genome Project, and we
are now entering an era of whole genome sequencing. With the great
progress that has been made, new challenges lie ahead. Higher levels of
automation are needed to perform experiments, vastly more data must be
analyzed, and new questions should be asked. Considering the role of
Washington University in genome mapping and sequencing, computational
genome analysis will be the theme of a special session in the ISMB-96
meeting. We interpret this theme to include a broad range of topics:

    Algorithms in experimental science

         + Computational and experimentally efficient strategies
         + Integrated data interpretation and acquisition

    Intelligent data acquistion

         + Automating experimental systems
         + Adaptive and robust basecalling
         + Targetted accuracy analysis
         + Automated imaging in cytogenetics and mapping
         + From wet lab to "soft lab"

    Repeats, patterns and non-random structure in genomes

    Genes

         + Identification
         + Transcript structure and splicing
         + Gene modeling

    Functional inference about genes and gene systems

         + Control in mass action networks
         + Why so many paralogs?

    From sequence to structure and structure to function

         + The limits of homology based modeling
	 + Hidden Markov models and threading
         + Beyond cDNAs - posttranslation modification and control

    Accuracy and interpretability:

         + Rough sequence vs. perfect sequence
         -- reasoning with incomplete information
         -- reasoning about changing information
         -- non-monotonic reasoning
         -- belief revision
         + Strategic sequencing
         -- is there room for heuristic guidance?
         -- heterogeneous knowledge sources
         + The role of ESTs
         -- case based reasoning

    Genome information systems

         + Information retrieval and presentation
         + Data integration and database linking
         + Network information systems
         + Ethics of genetic information

    Whole genomes

         + Closure and complete knowledge, what does it mean?
         + What have we learned from H. influenzae and S. cereviseae
         + Genomes in the context of all the other relevant data in the world?
    
    Molecular computing
    
         + Algorithms and approaches
         + Mapping problems to hyperparallel computers
    
Two areas for software demonstration/evaluation are particularly
relevant to computational genome analysis.

     The Basecalling Bakeoff - Inferring nucleotide sequence from the
     raw fluoresence data remains at the core of all large scale genome
     sequencing projects. The accuracy and reliability of basecalling
     algorithms can greatly affect the cost and accuracy of finished
     data. Many programs have been developed using a variety of
     approaches. We are setting aside a test suite of raw data from
     on-going genome sequencing projects at Washington University and
     elsewhere for use in a comparative evaluation of basecallers.

     Gene Quest - Do all the gene identification programs recognize the
     same genes? Do they work equally well on different genomes and
     regions of the genome? By the time of the meeting, we anticipate
     that several whole genomes and several extended regions of human
     genome sequence will be available for analysis. A test set will be
     set aside and developers of gene identification and gene modeling
     software will be asked to prepare summaries of their findings in
     advance of the workshop, and a detailed comparison of results will
     be made.

Meeting on Interconnection of Molecular Biology Databases

The premise behind the MIMBD session is that the roughly 100 existing
molecular biology databases will be of much greater value to molecular
biologists when interconnected than in their current isolated states.
There is tremendous synergy between electronic data repositories in
molecular biology; once they are interconnected, scientists will be
able to integrate diverse sources of information to answer biological
questions that are laborious or impossible to tackle today.
Interoperation of heterogeneous databases is also hot a research topic
in computer science. Submissions for this session should describe
advances in biological database interoperation on topics such as
multidatabase query languages, schema integration, tools for data
transformation, generation and validation of database links, WWW-based
approaches to interoperation, and biological results obtained through
multidatabase queries.

The MIMBD meeting has been organized by Peter Karp and held in
conjunction with the ISMB meeting for the past two years. For ISMB '96,
MIMBD will be incorporated into the full ISMB meeting as a special
session. There will also be a one-day MIMBD workshop after ISMB. All
formal papers should be submitted to ISMB.

Previous ISMB Meetings

   * 1993: National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD, USA
   * 1994: Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA
   * 1995: Robinson College, Cambridge, UK

ISMB-96 Organizing Committee

   * David States, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
   * Terry Gaasterland, Argonne National Laboratory, Chicago, IL
   * Randall Smith, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
   * Lawrence Hunter, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD

ISMB-95 Program Committee

     Yutaka Akiyama Kyoto University, Japan
     Stephen Altschul NCBI, USA
     Kiyoshi Asai Electrotechnical Laboratory, Japan
     Hans-Joachim Boehm BASF, Germany
     Soren Brunak Centre for Biological Sequence Analysis, Denmark
     Bruce Buchanan University of Pittsburgh, USA
     Christian Burks Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA
     Trevor Dix Monash University, Australia
     Andreas Dress University of Bielefeld, Germany
     Jacquelyn Fetrow University at Albany, USA
     John Fox Imperial Cancer Research Fund, UK
     Bob Futrelle Northeastern University, USA
     Janice Glasgow Queens University, Canada
     Michael Gribskov San Diego Supercomputer Centre, USA
     David Haussler University of California Santa Cruz, USA
     Peter Karp SRI International, USA
     Toni Kazic Washington University, St Louis, USA
     Alan Lapedes Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA
     Rick Lathrop Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
     Michael Mavrovouniotis Northwestern University, USA
     Marcie McClure University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA
     Satoru Miyano Kyushu University, Japan
     Richard Mott Imperial Cancer Research Fund
     Art Olson Scripps Institute, USA
     Rebecca Parsons University of Central Florida, USA
     Francois Rechenmann INRIA,
     France Otto Ritter German Cancer Centre, Germany
     Burkhard Rost EMBL, Germany
     Jean Sallantin CNRS, France
     Chris Sander EMBL-Heidelberg, Germany
     David Searls University of Pennysylvania, USA
     Jude Shavlik University of Wisconsin, USA
     Mike Sternberg Imperial Cancer Research Fund, UK
     Gary Stormo University of Colorado, USA
     Willie Taylor National Institute for Medical Research, UK
     Ed Uberbacher Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA
     Teresa Webster Stanford University, USA

1996 Keynote Speakers

	Russel F. Doolittle, University of Calfiornia, San Diego
	David Haussler, University of California, Santa Cruz
	Chris Sanders, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg
	Robert Waterston, Washington University, St. Louis

Call for Papers

     Key Dates Papers due: Feb 1, 1996.

     Replies to authors: Mar 15, 1996.

     Revised papers due: Apr 1, 1996

The purpose of the ISMB conference is to disseminate the latest
developments in computational molecular biology and biophysics. Paper
submissions are requested with the understanding that they represent
orignal work by the authors and that the same work has not been and
will not be published elsewhere. All papers presented at ISMB are peer
reviewed and are published in hardcopy proceedings that are distributed
to libraries throughout the world and abstracted in Medline and other
bibliographic databases.  If there is any question of overlap please
cite the related paper and provide a copy for reviewers.

Electronic and hardcopy publication

While preserving the traditional of hardcopy publication, we are
vigorously pursue full text electronic distribution of the meeting
proceedings, possibly in CDROM format. Several approaches are under
consideration including HTML, or Adobe Acrobat formats.

For review purposes, hardcopy for papers should be submitted,
single-spaced, 12 point type, 12 pages maximum including title,
abstract, figures, tables, and bibliography with titles. The first page
should include the name of the author responsible for correspondence, a
full postal address, electronic mailing address, telephone and FAX
number of each author.  Also, please list five to ten keywords
describing the methods, concepts and problems discussed in the paper.
A list of suggestions for keywords is availble by WWW
(http://ibc.wustl.edu/ismb96/keywords.html).

Following submission all papers will be reviewed by three members of
the Programme Committee using criteria defined on a standard review
form.  State whether you wish the paper to be considered for oral
presentation only, poster presentation only or for either presentation
format.  If accepted, the paper will appear in the proceedins in either
case.

Submission Procedure

* A. Six printed copies of each paper should be submitted to the
following address:

     ISMB-96
     c/o Dr. David States
     Institute for Biomedical Computing
     Washington University School of Medicine
     700 South Euclid Avenue
     St. Louis, MO 63110-1012
     USA

and

* B. Send email to ismb96@ibc.wustl.edu including the following information:

     TITLE, LIST OF AUTHORS, KEYWORDS, ABSTRACT
     For primary author*:
     NAME, AFFILIATION, E-MAIL ADDRESS and FULL POSTAL ADDRESS
     For other authors :
     NAME, AFFILIATION, E-MAIL ADDRESS
     *or other author responsible for correspondence

Call for Tutorials

     Key Dates
   *  Short proposals due: Feb 26, 1996
   *  Full proposals due: to be March 18, 1996
   *  Replies to authors: April 1, 1996
   *  Draft Handouts due: April 15, 1996
   *  Final Handouts due: May 13, 1996
   *  Tutorials Presented: June 12, 1996

Tutorials involve either a full day (6-8 hours) or half-day (3-4 hours)
of instruction, and require the advance preparation of high quality,
peer reviewed printed materials for the students. We are soliciting
proposals for introductory and advanced tutorials appropriate to this
diverse conference community.

Below is a list of last year's tutorial topics. These topics are
indicative of the type and scope of the proposals we are soliciting for
this year. However, we are also very much interested in proposals to
teach about recent advances in the field that have not been previously
covered in an ISMB tutorial.

   *  An Introduction to Intelligent Systems for the Biologist
   *  An Introduction to Molecular Biology for the Computer Scientist

In addition to these introductory tutorials, last year's conference
included advanced tutorials on:

   *  Protein Structure Prediction
   *  Machine Learning Approaches to Molecular Biology
   *  Linguistics of Biosequences
   *  Protein Evolution
   *  Computational Methods for Molecular Docking
   *  Statistical Foundations of Multiple Sequence Alignment and Structure
     Prediction

Tutorial instructors will receive an honorarium and have conference
registration fees waived.  If you are interested in proposing a
tutorial, please send a short (approximately one page) indication of
your interest, describing the content of the tutorial, its importance
to the ISMB audience and your qualifications to teach it. Your
proposals should be sent to the tutorial coordinator as soon as
possible. The coordinator will help the proposers turn their brief
description into a full proposal, which will then be peer reviewed. Be
aware that in 1995 we received more than 30 applications for 8 tutorial
slots, so please make a clear case for the appropriateness of your
tutorial for the ISMB audience in your proposal.

Please send your indications of interest, by email if possible, to

     Larry Hunter
     ISMB-96 Tutorials
     hunter@nlm.nih.gov
     (301) 496-0673 (fax)
     National Library of Medicine
     Bldg 38A, MS-54
     8600 Rockville Pike
     Bethesda, MD 20894 USA

Open Poster Session

An open poster session will be held at the meeting to allow informal
presentation of late breaking results and work in progress. To be
included in the conference proceedings, abstracts for posters should be
submitted to:

Abstracts deadline: Apr 1, 1996

     ISMB-96
     c/o Dr. David States
     Institute for Biomedical Computing
     Washington University School of Medicine
     700 South Euclid Avenue
     St. Louis, MO 63110-1012
     USA

Job Fair

The ISMB meetings are unique in bringing together biological and
computational scientists with interests in computational biology. With
the automation of the experimental laboratory and the increasing use of
databases and advanced information systems in the biotechnology
industry, many employment opportunities exist for such individuals. To
facilitate contact between job candidates and prospective employers, we
will be hosting a job fair at ISMB-96.  Both commercial and academic
employers are encouraged to utilize the fair.

Vendor's Fair

Equipment demonstration and display facilities will be available for
interested vendors.  Contact David States for details.

Proceedings

Full-length manuscripts from accepted papers and posters will be
published in archival proceedings. Copies will be distributed at the
conference to registered attendees, and extra copies will be available
for purchase from the publisher subsequently.

Key Dates

Paper Submissions:

     Papers due: Feb 1, 1996
     Replies to authors: Mar 15, 1996
     Revised papers due: Apr 1, 1996

Poster Submissions (open session):

     Abstracts due: Apr 1, 1996

Tutorial Presentations:

   *  Full proposals due: to be March 18, 1996
   *  Replies to authors: April 1, 1996
   *  Draft Handouts due: April 15, 1996
   *  Final Handouts due: May 13, 1996
   *  Tutorials Presented: June 12, 1996

Future Conferences

Groups who would like host the 1997 and 1998 ISMB conferences should
send email to ismb96@ibc.wustl.edu.

Contacts

David States (states@ibc.wustl.edu)
Terry Gaasterland (gaasterl@mcs.anl.gov)
Randy Smith (rsmith@imgen.bcm.tmc.edu)
Larry Hunter (hunter@work.nlm.nih.gov)

ISMB-96
Institute for Biomedical Computing
Washington University School of Medicine
700 South Euclid Avenue
St. Louis, MO  63110-1012
USA

telephone: (314) 362-2135
fax: (314) 362-0234
email:	ismb96@ibc.wustl.edu
www:	http://ibc.wustl.edu/ismb96