[Biocorba-announce-l] Call for Participation: Objects in Bio- & Chem-Informatics 2002, November 18-19, Washington, DC

[W.David.Benton@gsk.com]

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CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

OBJECTS IN BIO- & CHEM-INFORMATICS 2002 (OiBC-2002)
Theme: "Best Practices & Lessons Learned"

18-19 November 2002  Washington, DC, USA

Organized by the Life Sciences Research Domain Task Force (LSR DTF)
Sponsored by the Object Management Group (OMG) and IONA Technologies

Following in the tradition of the successful 'Objects in Bioinformatics' 
conferences in 1997, '98, and '99, and OiBC-2001, Objects in 
Bio- & Chem-Informatics 2002 will be held at the Crystal Gateway Marriott 
Hotel in Arlington, VA (across the Potomac from Washington, DC) on 
November 18 and 19, 2002. 

The overall theme of the conference is sharing best practices for 
implementing object-based systems for life sciences research. 
Conference scope includes object modeling and implementation, 
independent of platform or language.  The audience will be interested 
in reports detailing "real life" examples where current object 
technologies and languages have been applied to significant 
life sciences research problems.

Papers and posters reporting on original research and development 
of object-oriented software and systems, the role of object-oriented 
technology, reusable software components, design patterns, and 
distributed computing in life sciences research are sought. 

TOPICS OF INTEREST:
Typical but not exclusive topics of interest include:
* Bioinformatics and Genomics
* Cheminformatics
* Combinatorial libraries and drug design
* Computational chemistry
* Functional genomics
* Macromolecular structure
* Molecular sequence analysis
* Pharmacogenomics and Clinical genomics
* Proteomics and Transcriptomics, including Gene Expression
* Systems biology
* Biological pathways and networks
* Laboratory information management 
* Electronic laboratory notebooks
* Information and data management for high-throughput experimental biology
* Algorithms and Object-Oriented Modeling, Design, and Ontologies for 
  these disciplines
* Efficient object and data respositories for any of the disciplines 
  listed above
* Grid technology and distributed computing in the life sciences
* Open source efforts in bio- and chem-informatics 
* Development and application of open standards for data and 
  software interoperability
* Advantages and return on investment of object-oriented technologies

Demonstrations of interoperability in systems using components from 
two or more sources are particularly encouraged, either as posters 
or as platform talks.

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION:
Authors should submit their extended abstracts electronically to: 
oibc-abstracts@omg.org  Questions regarding submissions may also be 
sent to this address.  In your covering email, please clearly state 
the name, email address, and phone number of the corresponding author; 
the presentation title; and your preference for presentation (platform 
talk, poster, or demonstration).  Abstracts must be received by 
September 16, 2002, 23:59 local time.  This is a firm deadline. 
Early submissions are encouraged.

ABSTRACT PREPARATION:
The submitted abstract should include a title and the authors' names, 
institutional affiliations, and email addresses.  Additional address, 
telephone, and web site information may be included, but is not required. 
The abstract text should begin with a succinct (one-paragraph) statement 
of the problem, the results achieved, their significance and a comparison 
with previous work. This material should be understandable to 
non-specialists. A technical exposition directed to the specialist 
should follow. The length, including tables and bibliography, if any, 
should not exceed 5 pages. The manuscript should be easy to read, 
using at least 11 point font size, single spaced, and formatted for 
U.S. standard 8 1/2 by 11 inch paper with no less than one inch 
margin all around. Figures, if required, should be in the native 
format supported by the abstract file format (see below) or GIF, JPEG, 
or PNG.  Figures are not included in the five-page length limit and 
should be numbered consecutively according to their order of reference 
in the main text.  The abstract should be submitted in one of the 
following file formats: Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word, Plain ASCII text, 
or HTML.  Abstracts that deviate significantly from these guidelines 
risk rejection without consideration of their merits.

NOTIFICATION:
The conference submissions will be refereed by the program committee 
and each appropriate presentation will be accepted as either a platform 
presentation or as a poster presentation.  Authors will be notified of 
acceptance or rejection and of presentation type (platform or poster) 
by electronic mail on or before October 8, 2002. Any revisions to an 
accepted abstract must be received by October 22, 2002. An author of 
each accepted paper is expected to register for and attend the 
Conference and present the paper or poster; otherwise alternative 
arrangements should be made to have the paper or poster presented.

CALENDAR:
Deadline for abstract submission:               September 16, 2002
Author notification:                            October 8, 2002
Deadline for revised abstract submission:       October 22, 2002

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS:
Extended abstracts and presentation slides will be available on the 
OiBC-2002 web site (http://lsr.omg.org/oibc2002/) following the 
conference.

MORE INFORMATION:
For more information about this event, check the OiBC web site: 
http://lsr.omg.org/oibc2002/.
To learn about the mission and initiatives of the OMG's LSR DTF 
see: http://lsr.omg.org