This event is organized by CBRC with financial support from the KAUST Office of Sponsored Research
This event is organized by CBRC with financial support from the KAUST Office of Sponsored Research
Recent advancements in evolutionary biology are greatly impacted by the production of massive "omics" data sets, such as genomes, transcriptomes, proteomes and metabolomics that are now available for evolutionary studies. At the same time, the size and complexity of this data requires the Big Data paradigm and approach essential in its analysis. Moreover, comparative studies are crucial for evolutionary studies, which further leads to the need to develop state-of-the-art bioinformatics technologies and can underpin both research and technology.
CBRC is uniquely positioned to organize this Conference because of our own commitments in research in Big Data analyses in life science that is complemented with sophisticated tool development and database construction to support such research. In these domains at CBRC, we focus on the following: (a) how the Big Data is handled in the studies of evolutionary biology, and (b) what kind of bioinformatics tools are needed for these studies. These foci will be intensively discussed for various living systems of organisms, as guided and selected by the conference Program Committee.
In addition, a number of biology-inspired computational algorithms have emerged over the past several decades in areas of artificial intelligence, modeling, optimization and simulation. Examples of these would be genetic algorithms, ant colony optimization algorithms, swarm theory, artificial neural networks, etc. At this conference, we want to discuss not only what computer science can bring to the field of biology in general and evolutionary biology in particular, but also what can the lessons learned from these fields offer to application and research in computational sciences.
We strongly believe that the proposed Conference will provide a platform for active exchange of opinions to advance research and developments in big data analyses and bioinformatics focused on evolutionary biology.
On behalf of the Organizing and Program Committees, we would like to welcome all of the participants. As always, we look forward to a productive exchange of ideas and hope that you will enjoy your stay at KAUST and Saudi Arabia.
Vladimir Bajic, CBRC Director and Conference Co-Chair
Takashi Gojobori, Associate CBRC Director and Conference Co-Chair