Bioinformatics for Africa Nairobi 2007

Conference on the Bioinformatics of African Pathogens and Disease Vectors 28 May 07 – 2 Jun 07 ILRI and ICIPE Campus, Nairobi, Kenya

List of selected participants.

Conference program.

Hosted by: International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI, Kenya), International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE, Kenya), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, LIRMM Montpellier, France), African Society of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (ASBCB).

This meeting aims to provide a forum for discussions and, potentially, the development of future collaborations amongst bioinformaticians, mathematicians, computer scientists and biologists, whose research focuses on the bioinformatics of African pathogens and their vectors. The meeting will also offer young and emerging scientists from Africa the opportunity to meet scientists from the international community whose research may be of relevance to their own work.

Conference: May 28-29-30-31. Software and database demonstrations: June 1-2. The conference will include plenary talks given by invited speakers from various part of the world, and researchers from Africa. The plenary speakers listed here have confirmed their attendance:

Mohammad Afshar (Ariana Pharma - Pasteur Biotop, FR), "In silico drug design" Amos Bairoch (SIB, CH), "The annotation of proteins from pathogens in UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot: current status and future plans" Matthew Berriman (SANGER, UK), "Data mining parasite genomes" Tulio De Oliveira (SANBI, South Africa), "Resources and databases for HIV" Appolinaire Djikeng (TIGR, US), "Genomics and Emerging Viral Infectious Diseases: Influenza and Coronaviruses" Winston Hide (SANBI, ZA), "Translation of Genomics in endemic countries" Raphael Isokpehi (Jackson State University, US), "Information Superstructure for Protozoan Aquaporins" Eric Maréchal (CNRS, FR), "In silico strategies for target discovery" Enrique Morett (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, MX), "Taenia genomics" Allen Rodrigo (Univ. Auckland, NZ), "Evolution of HIV" Michel Tibayrenc (IRD, FR), "Trypanosomia, host/parasite/vector coevolution"

Oral and poster presentations will be sought in all areas of bioinformatics and computational biology with relevance to African disease vectors and pathogens. Conference topics include:

Functional, structural and comparative genomics of pathogens and their vectors Genetic interactions between pathogens, vectors, and/or hosts Evolution and co-evolution of vectors, pathogens and/or hosts Molecular epidemiology Immunomics and rational vaccine design Database and knowledge base development

Graduate students, young investigators and all African researchers involved in the field are strongly encouraged to submit an abstract describing their work. The Program Committee will choose selected abstracts for oral presentations. Those whose abstracts are not chosen for oral presentations will be able to present their work as posters. Grants will be given to African researchers and students to cover travel and local expenses, with priority for oral presentations and posters.

Dates and submission details

March 30 2007 Abstract and registration closes April 15 2007 Notification of acceptance for oral presentations May 1st 2007 Release of draft program May 28 2007 Conference begins

Committees

Organizing Committee, co-chairs: Daniel Masiga, ICIPE, Trushar Shah, BecA; members: Vincent Lefort, CNRS, Chantal Pacteau, CNRS, Anne Corval, CNRS, Etienne de Villiers, ILRI. Program Committee, co-chairs: Alia BenKahla (Tunisia), Winston Hide (South Africa); members: Ezekiel Adebiyi (Nigeria), Jaco de Ridder (South Africa), Scott Hazelhurst (South Africa), Dan Jacobson (South Africa), Beatrice Kilel (Kenya), Daniel Masiga (Kenya), Nicky Mulder (South Africa), Trushar Shah (Kenya), Etienne de Villiers (Kenya). International Scientific Committee, chair: Olivier Gascuel (CNRS, France); members: Raphael Isokpehi (Jackson State University, USA), Daniel Masiga (ICIPE, Kenya), Winston Hide (SANBI, South Africa), Allen Rodrigo (Univ. Auckland, NZ).

For more information, contact Daniel Masiga (dmasiga@icipe.org), Trushar Shah (tm.shah@cgiar.org) or Olivier Gascuel (gascuel@lirmm.fr).

This site is managed by Vincent Lefort.

Download the workshop announcement