University at Buffalo, NY · July 24-26, 2009

Ontologies are being used in a variety of ways by researchers in almost every life science discipline, and their use in annotation of both clinical and experimental data is now a common technique in integrative translational research. Principles-based ontologies are being developed for the description of biological and biomedical phenomena of almost every different type. To be maximally effective, such ontologies must work well together. But as ontologies become more commonly used, the problems involved in achieving coordination in ontology development become ever more urgent. To address these problems there is a need for an overarching conference which brings together representatives of all major communities involved in the development and application of ontologies in biomedicine and related areas. ICBO is designed to meet this need. More information about ICBO 2009 is available on the conference website.

2-7 August 2009, Albuquerque, NM

With fossil fuels waning, a public awareness of global warming and biodiversity issues increasing, and new green technologies breaking into public markets, the world is poised for planning sustainability of a global society. The location of the 2009 meeting, Albuquerque, New Mexico, is a fitting forum due to the city’s forward-thinking sustainable initiatives (e.g., Albuquerque Green and Smart Communities Network). It is also fitting that a theme of sustainability follows one of ecological education (ESA 2008), arguably the most important part of sustainable planning. Although a wealth of ecological knowledge is available, there remains a disconnection between knowledge and application. For example, large areas of the landscape are being developed for biofuel agriculture with little regard for the effects on landscape processes. Many of the symposia this year will address this meeting theme of Ecological Knowledge and a Global Sustainable Society.

April 16-19, 2009, Berlin, Germany

The 3rd International Biocuration Conference will provide a forum for curators and developers of biological databases to discuss their work, promote collaboration, and foster a sense of community in this active and growing area of research. Furthermore, we will introduce the newly formed International Society for Biocuration. Participants from academia, government, and industry interested in the methods and tools employed in biocuration are encouraged to attend.

Capturing Complexity: the Scientific, Societal and Ethical Meanings of “Environment” in Genetics Research

While we have been approaching broad consensus across the academy about accepting the complexity of gene-environment interaction and its influence on human behavior, the actual characterization of that complexity and interaction is still where much work is needed. To foster thought on this
overarching issue, this five-hour symposium was divided into five presentation panels, each followed by a brief discussion; the panels then were summed up in a deliberative discussion to end the event. Topics covered included considerations in measuring the environment, how to tease out the interplay between genes and environments, and ethical and policy implications of gene-environment research. Some specific questions contemplated were:

• What sort of causal relationship exists between genotype, environment and phenotype?
• How can we develop measurements to probe the influence of the environment in specific, meaningful ways?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of the current state of genome-wide association studies, and how can environment be incorporated into these studies?
• What implications do gene-environment interaction studies hold for policy?

For more information, please see the symposium website at http://cirge.stanford.edu/environment_genes_2008/

This was a broad-based conference covering all aspects of climate change and CO2 storage research. The presentations were accessible to any researcher interested in learning more about CO2. Technical posters on all aspects of climate change, ocean acidification, CO2 separation, transport or storage were also presented.

Additional information available via Imperial College and Nature Publishing Group

Interpreting Complexity: the Scientific and Social Meaning of Behavioral Genetics

Human behavior is an object of both scientific inquiry and public fascination. During this six-hour event, panelists presented on, and engaged in a deliberative discussion about, emerging work in behavioral genetics and its impact on society. The panelists came from a wide range of fields – genetics, psychology, anthropology, law and philosophy.

Many questions were considered, including:

• What level of explanation should be used to talk about behavior and in which domains?
• How is behavior conceptualized and studied?
• What is the dynamic between changing social values and emerging behavioral genetic findings?

For more information, please see the symposium website at http://cirge.stanford.edu/behavioral_genetics_2006/

Sequence and structure genomics have generated a wealth of data. Both the number and the diversity of discovered genes is increasing, meaning that established annotation methods, such as homology transfer, are annotating less data. In addition, there is a need for a standardized annotation so that it could be incorporated into function annotation on a large scale. Finally, there is a need to assess the quality of the function prediction software available.

The Annual Joint Automated Function Prediction / BioSapiens meeting (http://2008.biofunctionprediction.org) brings together computational biologists who are dealing with the important problem of gene and gene product function prediction, to share ideas, and create collaborations.

Based on data from the Allen Brain Atlas–Mouse Brain, a project of the Allen Institute for Brain Science, these reports are compilations of neuroanatomic and gene expression characteristics of key regions in the mammalian brain. They include detailed descriptions of each region, the characteristics of 50 genes that are selective for the region, and correlation tables showing the genetic relationship of the region to the rest of the brain.

The Allen Brain Atlas–Mouse Brain is a Web-based, genome-wide, three-dimensional atlas of gene expression throughout the adult mouse brain. The Allen Institute for Brain Science is a non-profit medical research organization dedicated to advancing brain research. The Institute makes its data and tools freely available to the public online.

Second Nature is Nature’s home in the virtual world of Second Life and features scientific exhibitions, ongoing projects and regular events. The Second Nature Lecture Series is an ongoing series of free events featuring presentations by scientists of various disciplines followed by Q&A sessions. Second Nature also hosts occasional mini-series of talks on topical issues. Events on Second Nature are on-going: details of how to attend can be found on the Second Nature website.