This award is for support of student participation in the "Third International Symposium on Computational Cell Biology," held March 19-23, 2005 in Lenox, MA.
Computational Cell Biology is a growing interdisciplinary field that responds to the need for computational methods to analyze and organize complex experimental data on the structure and function of the cell. Whereas other meetings in computational biology focus on bioinformatics and structural biology, this is the only meeting geared specifically to the use of computational modeling applications in cell biology and that is primarily targeted to cell biologists. The symposium is being organized by the National Resource for Cell Analysis and Modeling (NRCAM), located in the Center for Biomedical Imaging Technology (CBIT) at the University of Connecticut Health Center. The organizing committee consists of Drs. Leslie M. Loew, Director of NRCAM and CBIT, John Carson, co-Director of NRCAM, and Ann Cowan, Deputy Director of CBIT and head of dissemination and training for NRCAM, who chairs the committee. Previous symposia, held in 2001 and 2003, were highly successful both in their scientific content and in providing a venue for cell biologists to interact with theoreticians and computer scientists. The 2005 Symposium continues to serve as an important focal point for the community of scientists in this rapidly expanding field. The scientific focus of the meeting is on areas of cell biology for which modeling approaches are currently being developed or that are ripe for computational modeling approaches. Topics at the meetings encompass a range of cellular mechanisms including cytoskeletal dynamics, cell cycle control, signal transduction pathways, and regulation of calcium dynamics. The meeting format is an intensive mix of platform sessions, poster sessions and small workshops and tutorials. The venue is a small resort in the Berkshire mountains that is limited to a maximum of 125 on-site participants, a setting and meeting size that is ideal for encouraging individual interactions, and encouraging active participation by graduate and postdoctoral students.
