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Understanding the choreography of life

8 October 2008

Dr Madhu Chetty

More than 100 researchers, practitioners and students from across the world are expected to attend the third annual 'Pattern Recognition in Bioinformatics' (PRIB) conference in Melbourne from 15 -- 17 October, 2008.

The international conference, hosted by Monash University's Faculty of Information Technology and the International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR), will include participants from 20 countries discussing their research into pattern recognition and computational intelligence methods in the field of bioinformatics.

"Bioinformatics involves two main disciplines, the life sciences and the computational sciences, and the development of technologies for storing and analysing biological information," Dr Chetty said.

Conference chair Dr Madhu Chetty from the School of Information Technology at the University's Gippsland campus said a holistic understanding of biological systems and processes was critical in comprehending around nature's choreography of life.

He said the emerging discipline of bioinformatics was devoted to this understanding and was becoming a promising multidisciplinary research field.

"This conference will allow academics from across the world to present their latest research and share their experiences in this fascinating area."

The keynote speakers are Professor Haruki Nakamura from Osaka University, Japan, Associate Professor Ram Samudrala from the University of Washington, US, and Professor David Sankoff from the University of Ottawa, Canada.

Registration is mandatory for the conference. Further information is available from the PRIB 2008 website.

For the benefit of those who cannot attend PRIB 2008, the three conference keynote speakers will give a free seminar talk on the recent challenges in bioinformatics.

The seminar, organised by the Faculty of Information Technology and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and sponsored by Multimedia Victoria, will be held in the WEHI Lecture Theatre Level 7, 1G Royal Parade, Parkville, on Thursday 16 October, 2008.

RSVPs are essential for the talks, to Sara Willhelme Sarah.willhelme@infotech.monash.edu.au by Friday 10 October.