Technology meets Science - Representatives of Research and Industry Get Together
Valuable contacts in applied Systems Biology to be made on May 22nd, 2008 in Dresden, Germany
At the second Conference on Systems Biology of Mammalian Cells, SBMC, which will take place in the Kulturpalast in Dresden, Germany, representatives of research and industry will meet on May 22nd, 2008. The objective is to bring together potential co-operation partners in order to strengthen the collaboration between research and industry in Systems Biology projects.
Systems Biology is devoted to studying biological processes on a system level. It strives to create a holistic picture of dynamic life processes with regard to all levels - from the genome via the proteome and the organisation of the cell organelles all the way to the complete cell or even an entire organism. In order to achieve this high aspiration, Systems Biology combines quantitative methods used in molecular biology with knowledge gathered in mathematics, informatics and systems science.
Already today, beyond the mere understanding of the basics, Systems Biology findings contain great opportunities for medicine and health, for the development of new and better medication, and also for biotechnology, for plant research and for agriculture. In the future it will, for example, be possible to predict suitable points of application for therapies or possible side effects of new active ingredients. The development of medication will thus become both safer and more effective and will also allow for reducing animal testing to a minimum. On the basis of Systems Biology, biotechnological applications can be optimized to increase productivity but also to develop new types of synthesis operations. Therefore, Systems Biology is of great economic interest.
With this end in mind, HepatoSys as the organizer of the SBMC-Conference will bring together leading representatives of research and industry at the "Pre-Competitive Meeting for Industrials". During this event, Systems Biology researchers will present the latest progress and success in their work. Aside from speakers from various German institutes belonging to HepatoSys, internationally renowned authorities in the field of Systems Biology who in their work have already successfully bridged the gap between industry and research will also be present. Professor Igor Goryanin holds a chair for Computational Systems Biology at the University of Edinburgh and is the director both of the Edinburgh Centre for Bioinformatics and of the Centre for Systems Biology in Edinburgh. In addition to that he worked in industrial research and is the director and co-founder of the company Electrogenics Ltd. Goryanin developed one of the first software packages for modelling and simulating cellular networks. Dr. John Jeremy Rice works at IBM?s T. J. Watson Research Center in New York, USA. His objective is to link computer simulations with new methods of genome- and proteome-research. He is presently developing methods to deduce signal pathways of the cell from data collected in high flow-rate analyses. At this point, Rice holds two patents in the field of modelling biological systems.
The second part of the event allows space for initiating cooperation between industry and research. The plan is to have representatives of both groups come together and discuss their objectives, ideas and possibilities in small rounds of talk. In this way, fruitful collaboration can develop ? especially to initiate and promote application-oriented projects. This anticipated collaboration on the one hand will serve to strengthen Systems Biology research in Germany and further expand its international signifance. In addition, scientific knowledge in this field will be of benefit to industrial enterprises, and will have positive economic effects in the German business world.
About the SBMC and HepatoSys
The second Conference on Systems Biology of Mammalian Cells (SBMC), which will take place May 22 ? 24, 2008, in Dresden, Germany is organized by HepatoSys, the German Systems Biology Competence Network for the investigation of liver cells. HepatoSys was founded in 2004 by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in co-operation with the Project Management Jülich (PtJ). The research groups in this network work on an interdisciplinary consideration of all processes in the liver with special focus on the liver cell (hepatocyte). Scientists coming from completely different fields collaborate closely on computer modelling of the functions of the biological system . The objective is a virtual liver cell which would make it possible to reproduce model physiological processes in silico.
Weitere Informationen:
http://www.sbmc08.de/08/pcm.aspx
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