---------------------------------------------------- Subject: SMB Digest v10i16 SMB Digest April 22, 2010 Volume 10 Issue 16 ISSN 1086-6566 Editor: Ray Mejía ray(at)smb(dot)org Note: Information about the Society for Mathematical Biology, including an application for membership, may be found in the SMB Home Page, http://www.smb.org/ . Access the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, the official journal of SMB, at http://www.springer.com/11538 . Inquiries about membership or BMB fulfillment should be sent to membership(at)smb(dot)org . Issue's Topics: NIGMS Workshop Video: Postdocs Transitioning to Independent Positions International Conference: Synthetic Biology, Dec. 15-16, Evry Call for Registration: CNS2010, July 24-30, San Antonio Call for Papers: ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms Call for Abstracts: Biomedical Data & Knowledge Mining, Chania PhD Position: Bioinformatics / Computational Immunology, UNSW, Sydney Postdoctoral position: Scientist Computational Disease Biologist Postdoctoral Position: Scientist Disease Modeling & Simulation SMBnet Reminders ---------------------------------------------------- From: "Owens, Roland (NIH/OD) [E]" Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2010 15:23:46 -0400 Subject: NIGMS Workshop Video: Postdocs Transitioning to Independent Positions http://www.nigms.nih.gov/multimedia/PostdocsWorkshop032010.htm This was a really neat workshop that dealt with a wide range of issues, including diversity issues. Sincerely, Roland A. Owens, Ph.D. Assistant Director, Office of Intramural Research ---------------------------------------------------- From: Dominique Zeliszewski Date: Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 5:07 AM Subject: International Conference: Synthetic Biology, Dec. 15-16, Evry Dear colleagues, Genopole® has the pleasure to announce the International Conference on SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY Bottom-up, Top-down and Cell-free approaches, Intellectual Property issues that will be held on December 15th and 16th, 2010 at the University of Evry-Val-d'Essonne, Evry, France   Several approaches of Synthetic Biology research have been individualized - Top-down, Bottom-up, and Cell-free systems - all of these having produced many encouraging results. Our conference will allow the worldwide leaders in Synthetic Biology to show their latest advances. As Synthetic Biology moves forwards, new Intellectual Property Right models need to be defined, and the choice of these models will have a major impact in shaping the future of Synthetic Biology. A session will be devoted to Intellectual Property to address these issues.  Our conference follows the Biomanufacturing Symposium also organized by Genopole® on December 14th, in which some applications of Synthetic Biology will be presented. Genopole® will award a limited number of grants to post-docs and PhD-students being the first author of an abstract selected for a poster or for a contributed talk. More information on http://syntheticbiology2010.genopole.fr Key dates submissions deadline: June 30th, 2010 notification of acceptance: September 3rd, 2010 notification of fellowship: September 3rd, 2010 early bird registration: until October 15th, 2010 registration deadline: December 15th, 2010 conference date: December 15th and 16th, 2010 Best wishes, For the steering committee, Dominique ZELISZEWSKI Scientific communication  ---------------------------------------------------- From: Jonathan Rubin Date: Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 12:47 PM Subject: Call for Registration: CNS2010, July 24-30, San Antonio Registration for CNS*2010 is now open. Please register at http://www.cnsorg.org/2010 or https://www.regonline.com/CNS2010 We encourage participants to book their accommodation early. CNS*2010 Twentieth Annual International Computational Neuroscience Conference July 24 - July 30, 2010 San Antonio, Texas, USA http://www.cnsorg.org EARLY MEETING REGISTRATION CLOSES: May 15, 2010 (11 PM Pacific Time, USA) REGISTRATION WEBSITE: http://www.cnsorg.org/2010 or https://www.regonline.com/CNS2010 NOTIFICATION OF ABSTRACT ACCEPTANCE: April 2010 CNS*2010 will be held in San Antonio, Texas, USA July 24-30th, 2010. The meeting will kick off with a day of tutorials and an evening welcome reception on July 24th. The main meeting of CNS*2010 will take place from Sunday July 25th-Wednesday July 28th, including a special Symposium, "Computational Neuroscience: What have we learned in 20 years and what do we still need to know?", on the afternoons of July 26th-27th. These events will be followed by two days of workshops on July 29-30th (Thursday-Friday). The main meeting will be held in the historic Sheraton Gunter Hotel in central San Antonio, one block from San Antonio's Famous River Walk. San Antonio is home to several universities including the University of Texas Health Science Center - San Antonio and the University of Texas San Antonio, which are both sponsoring CNS*2010. As is traditional, the CNS banquet will be an interesting and culturally themed event, hosted at Sundance Ranch on July 28th. INVITED SPEAKERS: Miguel Nicolelis, Duke University, USA, Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience Lecturer Vivian Mushahwar, University of Alberta, Canada Jonathan Wolpaw, Wadsworth Center and SUNY, USA SYMPOSIUM SPEAKERS: John Miller, Montana State University, "Analysis of invertebrate nervous systems as models for understanding complex function" Ron Calabrese, Emory University, "The more we look, the more biological variation we see: How has and should this influence modeling of small networks?" Alain Destexhe, CNRS - France, "The Nervous System, still noisy after all these years?" Upinder Bhalla, NCBS - Bangalor India, "Still looking for the memories: molecules and synaptic plasticity." John Rinzel, NYU, "Modeling neuronal dynamics - our trajectory?" Bruno Olshausen, University of California Berkeley, "Learning about vision: questions we've answered, questions we haven't answered, and questions we haven't yet asked." Sharon Crook, Arizona State University, "Learning from the past: Approaches for Reproducibility in Computational Neuroscience" Avrama Blackwell, George Mason University, "Calcium: the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything" Christiane Linster, Cornell University, "The olfactory system, still computing, but how?" Michael Hasselmo, Boston University, "20 years of oscillations and memory: The long and winding road linking cellular mechanisms to behavior." TUTORIALS: Upinder S. Bhalla and Aditya Gilra, NCBS, India: Multi-scale modeling with MOOSE Emery N. Brown, MIT: Neural Signal Processing Algorithms Bard Ermentrout, U Pittsburgh: Dynamical systems approaches to understanding neural models Mark Goldman, UC Davis: Network models of short-term memory, persistent neural activity, and neural integration Astrid Prinz, Emory U: Brute force exploration of high-dimensional neuronal parameter spaces Steven Schiff, Penn State U: Neural control engineering Reza Shadmehr, Johns Hopkins U: Computational Motor Control WORKSHOPS: see http://www.cnsorg.org/2010/workshops.shtml ---------------------------------------------------- From: Kirsten Wilden Date: Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 2:22 PM Subject: Call for Papers: ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms Conference Name: ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA11) Program Committee Chair: Dana Randall, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA Location: Holiday Inn San Francisco Golden Gateway, San Francisco, California, USA Dates: January 23-25, 2011 The Call for Presentations for this symposium is available at: http://www.siam.org/meetings/da11/ Submission Deadlines: July 2, 2010, 4:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time - Paper Registration Deadline July 7, 2010, 4:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time - Final Submission Deadline For additional information, contact the SIAM Conferences Department at meetings@siam.org. ---------------------------------------------------- From: Petros Xanthopoulos Date: Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 8:49 AM Subject: Call for Abstracts: Biomedical Data & Knowledge Mining, Chania Call for abstracts "International Conference on Biomedical Data & Knowledge Mining: Towards Biomarker Discovery, 7-9 July 2010." The deadline for abstract has now been extended. New deadline for abstract submission: 1 May, 2010 Data mining and Knowledge discovery are areas of research that provide engineers and applied scientists with tools for dealing with problems that involve processing and analysis of massive data sets. Many of these problems can be found in the areas of biomedicine. The ultimate goal of combining data mining with biomedicine is to discover effective Biomarkers. In this conference we aim to bring together researchers with mathematical and biomedical background in the beautiful island of Crete to share their expertise on data/knowledge mining and biomarker discovery. For more information Check the conference webpage: http://www.ise.ufl.edu/cao/DMBIO2010/DMBIO2010/Welcome.html ---------------------------------------------------- From: Vanessa Venturi Date: Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 5:28 PM Subject: PhD Position: Bioinformatics / Computational Immunology, UNSW, Sydney Funded PhD position in Bioinformatics / Computational Immunology at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. We seek a highly motivated student to start work in Semester 2 2010 on an exciting PhD research project in the area of bioinformatics / computational immunology. This project is aimed at better understanding immune responses to infectious diseases. The health, social, and economic impact of infectious diseases on the Australian and global populations is enormous. A major obstacle to the development of treatments for and vaccines against some infections is that we have a poor understanding of how the immune system responds to these infections. The successful applicant will join a dynamic team of researchers in the Computational Biology Unit / Complex Systems in Biology Group that use bioinformatics, computational, and mathematical approaches to study immune responses to a variety of infections, such as HIV, TB, and malaria. This research is done in collaboration with world-class experimental research groups both in Australia and overseas. The successful applicant will have an honours or masters degree in a quantitative science discipline such as bioinformatics, computing science, mathematics, or physics. The scholarship comprises an annual stipend of AUD$25,000 and is for study at the Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. Applicants who are not Australian citizens or Australian permanent residents must apply through the University of New South Wales International Scholarship program (http://www.international.unsw.edu.au/future/futurescholarships.html) Interested applicants should contact Dr Vanessa Venturi: v.venturi@unsw.edu.au. Please include a cover letter and CV that provide details about previous employment history (if any), education history, and technical skills. ---------------------------------------------------- From: Wojcik, Monika Date: 2010/4/22 Subject: Postdoctoral position: Scientist Computational Disease Biologist SCIENTIST - COMPUTATIONAL DISEASE BIOLOGIST YOU are highly motivated and always committed to deliver the best quality. You encourage collaboration and enjoy working in a team. You are passionate individual who likes creative and international work environments. THE OPPORTUNITY The successful candidate will join the Computational Science & Bioinformatics (CS&B) team of Philip Morris Products S.A. in Neuchâtel, Switzerland and will play a major role in the analysis of large scale data sets from various post-genomic technologies and their applications in biomarker discovery. Using newly developed software tools the candidate will interrogate systems biology datasets to discover biological networks differentiating normal and diseased states. His/Her scientific background and ability to critically review biological facts will be essential to developing a coherent synthesis of the biology being modeled. Specifically, you will: * Be responsible for mapping disease progression onto biological pathways * Provide analysis of large scale array-based data (genomics, transcriptomics, protemics) to support the Computational Disease Biology team * Apply advanced technologies in the area of network biology and pathway mining * Have a strong interest in collaborating with experimental biologists and computational scientists to interrogate systems biology datasets to discover biological networks differentiating normal and diseased states * Have scientific writing and critical review skills essential for the production of concise, detailed project reports which represent a coherent synthesis of the biology of the experimental system QUALIFICATIONS * PhD in bioinformatics, computational biology, biological sciences or a related field * Previous experience in disease pathways and network biology as well as experience in inflammation and cancer biology * Broad expertise in computational biology with particular strength in -omics data analysis * Demonstrated ability to manage and interpret large biological data sets * Fluency in English is a must WHAT WE OFFER You will be part of the PMI Research & Development Department, whose primary mission is to research and develop new products which may have the potential to reduce the risks of tobacco related diseases. You will benefit from our dynamic team of professionals, working in a multicultural environment. We offer an excellent salary and benefits package as well as relocation allowance (where appropriate). If you match our profile and you are interested in joining our dynamic team of professionals, please reply online by the end of April 2010. A valid Swiss work permit or Swiss or EU citizenship is required for this position. ---------------------------------------------------- From: Wojcik, Monika Date: 2010/4/22 Subject: Postdoctoral Position: Scientist Disease Modeling & Simulation SCIENTIST, DISEASE MODELING & SIMULATION YOU are a detail-oriented figure with a passion for problem solving. You encourage collaboration and you enjoy working in a team. You have strong communication skills. You have academic or industrial experience in simulations and modeling of complex and real world problems. THE OPPORTUNITY The successful candidate will join the Computational Science & Bioinformatics (CS&B) team of Philip Morris Products S.A. in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Computer modeling and simulation are central to the highly multidisciplinary effort at the PMI R&D Center. As a Scientist in Disease Modeling and Simulation, you will develop computational models of biological networks and disease mechanisms, and play a major role in the analysis and interpretation of complex datasets in the context of disease pathways. You will provide general mathematical expertise and create computational and statistical tools to advance the research of the greater team. In addition you will have the opportunity to test model-driven hypotheses by interfacing with clinical and experimental scientists.  Specifically, you will: * Develop mathematical and computational models of disease mechanisms using multiple approaches and leveraging PMI's collaboration partners. * Develop hypotheses for disease mechanisms based on the analysis of experimental data in the context of current scientific knowledge * Use state of the art software tools to model the causal relationship between individual components within the whole biological system * Function as a member of a multidisciplinary team which executes scientifically challenging projects * Have a strong interest in collaboration with biologists for the elucidation of biological mechanisms QUALIFICATIONS * You have a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, Bioengineering, Computational Biology, Physics, or other closely related field with a strong background in nonlinear dynamics, ODEs, and statistics * You have demonstrated interest and experience in applying your technical knowledge to solve problems in biology and/or medicine. * Preferably, you also have domain knowledge in inflammation, cardiovascular disease and/or cancer * You are able to communicate with scientists in biology and mathematics * You are familiar with scripting languages * Fluency in English is a must WHAT WE OFFER You will be part of the PMI Research & Development Department, whose primary mission is to research and develop new products which may have the potential to reduce the risk of tobacco related diseases. You will benefit from our dynamic team of professionals, working in a multicultural environment. We offer an excellent salary and benefits package as well as relocation allowance (where appropriate). If you match our profile and you are interested in joining our dynamic team of professionals, please reply online by the end of April 2010. A valid Swiss work permit or Swiss or EU citizenship is required for this position. ---------------------------------------------------- Subject: SMBnet Reminders To subscribe to the SMB Digest please point your browser at http://list.auckland.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/math-smbnet and complete the subscription information. Alternatively, if you prefer to simply receive notice when the next issue is available, send mail to LISTSERV@listserv.biu.ac.il with "subscribe SMBnet Your Name" in the body of the mail (omit the quotes and include your name). After you subscribe, you will receive a greeting with additional information. Submissions to appear in the SMB Digest may be sent to SMBnet(at)smb(dot)org . Items of interest to the mathematical biology community may be submitted for inclusion in the SMBnet archive. See instructions at: http://smb.org/publications/SMBnet/pubs/fyi . The SMB Digest is also available on the SMB Home Page at http://smb.org/publications/SMBnet/digest/ The contents of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part with attribution. End of SMB Digest **************************************************** ----------------------------------------------------