First Announcement

I am pleased to announce the 6th International Summer School on Emerging Technologies in Biomedicine. The school will run from July 1^st – 6^th, 2012, in Patras, Greece. The aim of this school will be to teach graduate-level students and young scientists about some of the most important new directions in biomedical research. This year's special topic is Bioinformatics and Systems Biology Approaches for the Analysis of Complex Biological Networks. The 6th School is part of series that began in 2000 as a satellite to the European Symposium on Biomedical Engineering. The 5th International Summer School, also held in Patras, was highly successful. A large number of participants gained benefit from the high quality of presentations, many interactive discussions, and the many lectures on the most recent research themes and developments.

 

SUPPORT: This year's school will be hosted at the University of Patras and will be organized and funded in partnership with SYSGENET—an EU COST Action (BM0901). We are also glad to announce that the COST office will provide several grants to help students covering expenses towards attending the School.  Students who wish to apply for grant will have to submit a CV and letters of support from mentors until 1st May. Selection will be based on background, research potential, with the goal of achieving broad representation of fields of study and nations. Updates will be posted on the website.

 

THEME: The exponential increase in high-throughput 'omics data sets are rapidly changing standard paradigms that have dominated research in the past. Understanding gene interaction networks under different genetic and environmental influences will soon be a sine qua non for new strategies for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of a wide range of human diseases. Over the last two decades, sophisticated experimental systems—most notably mouse models—have been exploited to study gene functions, network structure, and gene-by-environment interactions. Murine genetic reference populations, such as the Collaborative Cross and the BXD family, incorporate large numbers of genomic variants and have reached a level of genetic variation that exceeds that of the entire human population. These and other resources are being use as experimental systems for sophisticated mathematical, statistical, and computational modeling of human health and disease. The six-day school will provide both a forum for new ideas and serve as a practical workshop. Students will interact closely with senior bioinformaticians, systems biologists, geneticists, statisticians, and engineers. 

 

TOPICS: Lectures and workshops will focus on the following topics: 

APPLICATIONS: Complex disease (infections, liver diseases, metabolic diseases, behavioural abnormalities, cancer etc.) modeling using Mouse Genetic Reference Populations

 

The presentations will consist of a series of invited talks and tutorials given by experts of major research groups. The venue of the 6th International Summer School will be the Patras Center of Sciences, situated in a scenic place close to the university campus. The organizers will provide means of transportation from the venue to the hotels.

The high level of scientific presentations combined with the warm traditional Greek hospitality and the many events organized in Patras are expected to make this Summer School an enriching and pleasant experience for both speakers and students.

I am looking forward to seeing you in Patras.