Multi-scale 2012 - Workshop on Multi-Level and Multi-Scale Modeling, Analysis and Simulation in Biology

Workshop on Multi-Level and Multi-Scale Modeling, Analysis and Simulation in Biology
Philadelphia, PA, USA, October 4-7, 2012
In conjunction with the 2012 IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedicine (BIBM 2012)
Context
Owing to advancements in experimental instrumentation, analytical and computational tools, biological phenomena are studied at increasing levels of detail and complexity across multiple levels of biological organization and multiple spatial and temporal scales. Multi-scale approaches seek to model, analyze and stimulate data and systems representing two or more distinct temporal and/or spatial scales. Multi-level approaches do not focus exclusively on multiple time and space scales. Multi-level approaches aim to model, analyze and stimulate data and systems representing multiple levels of biological organization (from molecules, to organisms, to populations, through to the environments ecosystems), multiple types of processes (physical, chemical, physiological), and multiple species/systems (e.g., the immune system and different types of bacteria).
Many existing modeling, analysis and simulation methodologies and tools, which were developed to meet the needs of much simpler single-level and single-scale scenarios, do not scale well to higher levels of complexity. A common approach to overcome the involved difficulties consists of decomposing the problem into less complex sub-problems for which adequate solutions exist and to synthesize the partial solutions into a global one. However, this divide-and-conquer strategy poses new challenges in terms of data and ontology integration; strategies for problem decomposition and solution synthesis; scale/level separation and coupling; combination, integration and coupling of mechanistic and phenomenological models; hybrid deterministic-stochastic approaches; development and deployment and execution of multi-component software applications in heterogeneous, distributed computing environments; and validation of multi-scale, multi-level, multi-methodology, multi-representation, multi-component, multi-software solutions.
Aims & Scope
The workshop aims to provide an informal and vibrant forum for researchers and industry practitioners to share their research results and practical development experiences. The goal of this workshop is to bring together computational biology, bioinformatics and healthcare informatics researchers to explore new ideas, methodologies and tools aimed at modeling, analysis and simulation of complex life phenomena cutting across multiple levels and scales of biological organization. The topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:
Multi-scale (temporal, spatial, organizational) modeling and simulation of biological processes/systems;
Integration and warehousing of multi-level / multi-scale data (e.g., of multi-omics data)
Data and information fusion approaches to multi-level / multi-scale modeling, analysis and simulation in biology;
Statistical and machine learning methods for analyzing multi-level / multi-scale biological data;
Modeling and analysis of heterogeneous/multi-level information networks representing biological phenomena;
Combined mechanistic and phenomenological approaches for modeling and simulation of biological systems and processes;
Hybrid deterministic-stochastic approaches;
Multi-level / multi-scale ontologies of complex biological processes and systems;
Reverse-engineering of multi-level / multi-scale biological models;
Validation of multi-level / multi-scale biological models;
Multi-agent modeling and simulation of biological systems and processes.
Important Dates
July 30, 2012: Due date for full workshop papers submission
August 20, 2012: Notification of paper acceptance to authors
September 4, 2012: Camera-ready of accepted papers
October 4-7, 2012: Workshop in Philadelphia, USA, as part of BIBM 2012