The two and a half days conference would bring together young and experienced researchers in Bioinformatics for intensive program including 20 plenary talks, 40 poster presentations and software demonstrations. The 1998 conference agenda will cover gene discovery and protein structure and function prediction areas as well as rapidly developed area of comparative genomics. The conference format was tested in 1997 Atlanta """"""""Gene Discovery in silico"""""""" conference (http://intron.biology.gatech.edu/ kostya /conference). The participants responds have shown (see below) that the 1997 conference provided an excellent opportunity to learn on the latest progress in the field and to exchange ideas between scientists from different research cultures. The 1998 conference is supposed to be held on Nov 5-8. Two more conferences on the same topic are projected for the next two years: Nov 4-7, 1999 and Nov 9-12, 2000. The number of participants was 180 in 1997. We expect this number to be at least 200 in 1998. We would like to keep the number of participant close to 200 in 1999 and 2000. The conference site is the Renaissance Hotel in Atlanta, GA. The Renaissance Hotel is conveniently located in Midtown area near Georgia Tech as well as near Atlanta 1996 Olympic games sites. From the reception, lunch and dinner area, located at the 25th floor one could enjoy a stunning view of Atlanta either day or night. Transportation is easy since the Hotel is situated near subway station (20 minutes ride from Atlanta airport station). The space includes a Conference room able to host up to 300 participants, and rooms for poster sessions and computer demonstrations.
