Two Decades of Predictive Biology

March 17-18, 2007
at
Boston University
Life Science and Engineering Building
24 Cummington Street
Room B01

This year marked two decades since Charles DeLisi launched the Human Genome Project. It also coincided with his 65th birthday. It was our pleasure to organize a Festschrift commemorating both events, "Two Decades of Predictive Biology," held at Boston University on March 17 and 18, 2007.

Click here for Conference Program

Organizing Committee
Claude Hobson Campbell
H. Eugene Stanley
Zhiping Weng


Saturday, March 17, 2007

10:15 a.m.	Welcome Robert Brown, President, Boston University Kenneth Lutchen, Chair, College of Engineering, Boston University David Campbell, Provost, Boston University
Session I - Moderator: Gyan Bhanot, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering and Biomaps Institute, Rutgers University
10:30 a.m.	Itai Yanai, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Fellow, Hunter Lab, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University Title:  Chance and Necessity in the Manifestation of Genetic Programs
11:15 a.m.	Zhiping Weng, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University Title: Transcription Factor Binding and Modified Histones in Human Bidirectional Promoters
12:00 p.m.	Jill Mesirov, Ph.D. Director and Chief Informatics Officer, Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Title: Knowledge-based Paradigms for Computational Genomics
12:30 p.m.	Minoru Kanehisa, Ph.D. Director and Professor, Bioinformatics CenterInstitute for Chemical Research, Kyoto University Professor, Human Genome Center Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo Title:  Linking Genomes to Biological Systems and Environments
1:00 p.m.	Break
Session II - Moderator: Vladimir Brusic, Ph.D., Director of Bioinformatics, Cancer Vaccine Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School
2:30 p.m.	Micah Dembo, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University Title:  Dynamics Of Cellular Traction Forces
3:00 p.m.	Boris Shakhnovich, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Associate Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University Title: Selective Constraints in Evolution of Gene Families and TBP-Dependent Promoters
3:30 p.m.	John N. Weinstein, M.D., Ph.D. Head, Genimics & Bioinformatics Group, LMP, CCR, NCI, NIH Title: Intergromic Molecular Profiling in Cancer Pharmacology and Therapeutics
4:00 p.m.	James Collins, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University Title:  Predictive Biology by Design
4:30 p.m.	Chris Sander Head, Computational Biology Center, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Title: Biomolecular Networks: Representation, Perturbation and Function

Sunday, March 18, 2007        

Session III - Moderator: Boris Shakhnovich, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University
9:30 a.m.	Gyan Bhanot, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering and Biomaps Institute, Rutgers University
10:00 a.m.	Hanah Margalit, Ph.D. Professor, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Title: Role of Non-coding RNA in the Cellular Regulatory Netoworks
10:30 a.m.	Avrum Spira, M.D. Assistant Professor of Medicine and Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Pulmonary Center, Boston University Medical Center Title: Developing Airway Epithelial Gene Expression Biomarkers for Early Lung Cancer Detection
11:00 a.m.	Douglas Lauffenburger, Ph.D. Uncas & Helen Whitaker Professor of Bioengineering & Director Biological Engineering Division, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Title:  Cue-Signal-Response Models for Predictive Understanding of Signaling Network Control of Cell Phenotypic Behavior
11:30 a.m.	Charles Cantor, Ph.D. Chief Scientific Officer, Sequenom Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University Title:  Sensitive in Vivo Detection of Specific RNA Species
12:00 noon	Break
Session IV - Moderator: Lubomir Chitkushev, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Boston University
1:30 p.m.	Jay Berzofsky, M.D., Ph.D. Branch Chief, Center for Cancer Research Vaccine Branch, NCI, NIH Title:  Engineering Vaccines for Cancer and HIV
2:00 p.m.	Matthew Pincus, M.D., Ph.D. Professor of Pathology Pathology Department, SUNY Downstate Medical Center Title: Molecular Modeling of Anti-Cancer Peptides that Block Cancer but not Normal Cell Growth
2:30 p.m.	Byron Goldstein, Ph.D. Fellow, Theoretical Biology and Biophysics, Theoretical Division Los Alamos National Laboratory Title:  The Ubiquitous Role of Aggregation in Cell Signaling
3:00 p.m.	Closing Remarks