The MidSouth Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Society (MCBIOS) is a nonprofit organization to promote research and education in bioinformatics and computational biology and address the need for the next generation of scientists who will work at the interface between computational and life sciences. This conference plays a special role in the region, providing a quality research-focused environment, serving as an arm for the international community of scientists in bioinformatics and computational biology. A major purpose of the MCBIOS annual conference is to foster collaborative research in bioinformatics and computational biology by providing a forum for scientists of various backgrounds and disciplines to interact to solve biological, health and/or biomedical problems by developing or using computational tools. The broader impacts of the project will be met through initiating future collaborations by the ensuing discussions of open problems, providing strong support to graduate and undergraduate students and a platform for new researchers to the field. The meeting also includes industry participants, which will provide students with knowledge of various types of employment opportunities and needed skill sets for those opportunities and provides for the publication of the proceedings in BMC Bioinformatics, a high impact factor journal.
