PLoS Computational Biology Conference Postcards from ISMB/ECCB 2011

Pedro Madrigal,Noa Sela,Simon M Lin

doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002259

Abstract

This July, PLoS Computational Biology invited attendees of ISMB/ECCB 2011 (http://www.iscb.org/ismbeccb2011) to send us short reports of conference highlights in the guise of PLoS Conference Postcards. Philip E. Bourne, Editor-in-Chief, selected three Postcards, which we received from Poland, Germany, and the United States of America. If the reports below capture your interest, you can find Postcards from past conferences in our recent collection: http://collections.plos.org/ploscompbiol/conferencepostcards.

Highlights

What proteins can be found in a cell? How do protein complexes form, and why? How do gene families evolve, and what drives both gene duplications and epigenetic modifications? How is bioinformatics influencing personalized treatments of cancer cases? These four essential—and yet unanswered—questions were put forward to the ISMB 2011 audience by Professor Dr Alfonso Valencia as the icebreaking launch pad of his keynote talk to challenge the community to develop a concerted effort in the field
It is known that most alternative splicing events produce isoforms very different than the main one, and ‘‘possibly isoforms we are not detecting are the ones important in oncogenic diseases’’, Valencia pointed out, while indicating that for the vast majority of alternative isoforms there is still little evidence of their role as functional proteins
Valencia outlined the following challenges in personalized cancer medicine: next-generation sequencing must evolve in technology and software; consequences of mutations in genes and proteins need to be unraveled; cancer gene mapping in functional pathways should make use of protein networks; and text and database mining have to be more effectively applied in drug design and pharmacogenetics

Summary

Introduction

It is known that most alternative splicing events produce isoforms very different than the main one, and ‘‘possibly isoforms we are not detecting are the ones important in oncogenic diseases’’, Valencia pointed out, while indicating that for the vast majority of alternative isoforms there is still little evidence of their role as functional proteins. To achieve a comprehensive definition of protein function, Valencia showed the crucial role of protein interactions for the divergence generated during the evolution of protein families [4].

Results

Conclusion