ECF 2013 - Workshop on Epigenomics and Cell Function (ECF 2013)

The replication of human genome proceeds in a defined temporal sequence (“replication timing program”) that can be altered by many temporary or permanent states in the organism such as epigenetic modifications, diseases and cell differentiation. Replication timing is regulated during development and replication correlates strongly with transcription, chromatin conformation, nuclear lamina binding and histone modifications. Thus studies of replication timing provide insight into poorly understood aspects of large-scale chromosome architecture and their significance to cell development and functionality. Despite these compelling structure-function correlations, causal linkages between DNA modification, DNA replication, chromatin architecture and transcription still remain obscure.
This workshop, in conjunction with ACM BCB 2013, aims to explore the relationship between epigenetic modifications, DNA replication, interactions among molecules and cell functions. The workshop will bring in researchers from epigenomics, proteomics, regulatory genomics and systems biology to discuss the most recent results in the field. The workshop will particularly focus on the key computational challenges and new algorithmic developments that establish the causality among emerging epigenomics datasets. Example topics will include (but it is not limited to):
Identifying the causality between epigenetic modifications, DNA replication, transcription and gene regulation
Novel methods for predicting the impacts of the gene loci on DNA replication/modification
Tackling the scalability issues regarding mining massive epigenomic and DNA replication data
Computational models of chromatin structure
Methods for integrating heterogeneous epigenomic data such as nucleosome positioning, DNA methylation and acetlyation
Methods for predicting gene expression changes using epigenomic data
Keynote Speaker
Frank Alber
Associate Professor
Molecular & Computational Biology, Department of Biological Sciences
University of Southern California