Call for Papers, Tutorials and Special Sessions

 The main goal of the CIBB international conference is to provide a multi-disciplinary forum for researchers interested in the application of computational intelligence, in a broad sense, to open problems in bioinformatics, biostatistics, systems and synthetic biology and medical informatics. Cutting edge methodologies capable of accelerating life science discoveries will be discussed. 

Following its tradition and roots, this year's meeting will bring together researchers from the international scientific community interested in advancements and future perspectives in bioinformatics and biostatistics. Also of particular interest are current trends and future opportunities at the edge of computer and life sciences, together with the application of computational intelligence to system and synthetic biology, and the consequent impact on innovative medicine. Theoretical and experimental biologists are invited to participate in order to present novel challenges and foster multidisciplinary collaboration.

The scientific program of CIBB 2018 will include Keynote Speakers, tutorials and special sessions. Contributed papers will be presented in plenary oral sessions, special sessions, or poster sessions.

Topics of interest include, but are not restricted to:

·        Next generation sequencing bioalgorithms

·        Multi-omics data analysis

·        High dimensional statistical analysis of omics data

·        Algorithms for alternative splicing analysis

·        Algorithms for molecular evolution and phylogenetic analysis

·        Methods for the visualization of high dimensional complex omic data

·        Software tools for bioinformatics 

·        Methods for comparative genomics

·        Methods for functional classification of genes

·        Methods for unsupervised analysis, validation and visualization of structures discovered in bio-molecular data 

·        Health-Informatics and Medical Informatics

·        Methods for the integration of clinical and genetic data

·        Heterogeneous data integration and data fusion for diagnostics

·        Algorithms for pharmacogenomics

·        Biomedical text mining and imaging

·        Methods for diagnosis and prognosis within personalized medicine

·        Statistical methods for the analysis of clinical data 

·        Prediction of secondary and tertiary protein structures

·        Mass spectrometry data analysis in proteomics

·        Algorithms for molecular evolution and phylogenetic analysis

·        Bio-molecular databases and data mining 

·        Mathematical modeling and automated reasoning on biological and synthetic systems

·        Computational simulation of biological systems

·        Methods and advances in systems biology

·        Spatio-temporal analysis of synthetic and biological systems

·        Network systems biology

·        Models for cell populations and tissues

·        Methods for the engineering of synthetic components

·        Modelling and engineering of interacting synthetic and biological systems 

·        Software tools for bioinformatics, biostatistics, systems and synthetic biology

GENERAL CHAIRS

Maria Raposo, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal

Paulo Lisboa, Liverpool John Moores University, U.K.

Giorgio Valentini, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy 

BIOSTATISTICS TECHNICAL CHAIR

Chiara Brombin, Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Italy

BIOINFORMATICS TECHNICAL CHAIR

Angelo Ciaramella, Università degli Studi di Napoli "Parthenope", Italy

ORGANISATION COMMITTEE

Maria Raposo, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal

Paulo A. Ribeiro, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal

Susana Sério, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal

Andrea Bracciali, University of Stirling, UK

SPECIAL SESSION ORGANIZER

Andrea Bracciali, University of Stirling, UK

Antonino Staiano, Università degli Studi di Napoli "Parthenope", Italy

STEERING COMMITTEE

Pierre Baldi, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA

Elia Biganzoli, University of Milan, ITA

Clelia Di Serio, University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, ITA

Alexandru Floares, Oncological Institute Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Jon Garibaldi, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom

Nikola Kasabov, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand

Francesco Masulli, University of Genova, Italy and Temple University, PA, USA

Leif Peterson, TMHRI, Houston, Texas, USA

Roberto Tagliaferri, University of Salerno, ITA

INVITED SPEAKERS

Professor Alberto Paccanaro,  University of London, U.K.

Professor Alexandra Carvalho, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal

Professor Benoit Liquet, University of Pau, France

Professor Fernando L. Ferreira, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal

Professor Veronica Vinciotti, Brunel University London, UK

IMPORTANT DATES

Tutorials and Special Session proposals: 25 March 2018  

Paper submission deadline: 8 July 2018  

Acceptance notification: 19 July 2018  

Author registration due: 6 August 2018  

Camera ready due: 6  August 2018

Conference: 6-8 September 2018

SUBMISSION WEBSITE

Papers should be submitted in PDF format on the Easy Chair conference system at this site

(https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=cibb2018).

PUBLICATION

Prospective authors should submit papers prepared according to the following instructions:

• Papers should be submitted in PDF format (this is the only accepted format)
• The latex template for the CIBB papers can be found here.
• Papers length should be at least 4 pages and should not exceed 6 pages
• We warmly recommend the use of the provided latex template and instructions. Should this not be possible, authors should reproduce the format and style of the sample paper available with the latex style.
• Papers should adhere, as much as appropriate, to the following structure and sections: 
• Scientific background
• Materials and methods
• Results
• Conclusions
• References

Papers should be submitted in PDF format on the Easy Chair conference system at this link.

Pdf versions of accepted papers will be distributed at the conference. At least one author of an accepted paper is required to register and present their paper at the conference.  Authors of accepted papers will be invited to submit an extended version of their work to a post-conference monograph. 

We plan to invite all papers for a volume in the Springer series of Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics (LNBI). Continuing the tradition of CIBB, we are also planning to invite the best papers, as an alternative to the publication on LNBI, to a special issue of an international scientific journal (such as BMC Bioinformatics, as in the latest editions).

TUTORIALS AND SPECIAL SESSIONS

CIBB 2018 will run a number of Tutorials and Special Sessions. Any topic of interest for the conference is eligible for a tutorial. Tutorials typically last from one to three hours. Special sessions focus on a specific, possibly cutting-edge, topic of interest for CIBB 2018. Special session organisers will be responsible for call dissemination, the reviewing process and organizing oral presentations. Typically, a special session will have at least 4 accepted papers and may have an invited speaker (to be negotiated).

Tutorial proposals

⁃ including title, a one page long abstract, and short CV of presenters

⁃ due by 25th March 2018 

⁃ send proposals to cibb2018@campus.fct.unl.pt

Special Session proposals

⁃ including the session’s title and scope, short CV of sessions chairs, preliminary list of at least 4, possibly more, potential authors

⁃ due by 25th March 2018

⁃ a special session is expected to have at least 4 accepted papers

⁃ send proposals to  cibb2018@campus.fct.unl.pt