Omics Meets Cell Biology: Applications to Human Health and Disease (B3)

INTELLECTUAL MERIT: This conference brings together researchers that are applying and developing novel “Omics” approaches to interrogate system-level networks with an ultimate goal of understanding the functions of proteins of therapeutic importance. The conference will place a special emphasis on the interface between Omics-level sciences as applied to and integrated with classical molecular- and cell-biological studies. Because these large-scale projects involve multidisciplinary teams from both academic and biotech/pharma labs that are situated in different institutions all over the world, this meeting will provide a unique opportunity for diverse research groups to get together and discuss new ideas, approaches, and novel results. SPECIFIC AIMS: This conference will explore how classical approaches to study biological processes, such as those used in cell biology, biochemistry and genetics, intersect with the new “Omics” technologies to advance our understanding of biological pathways associated with various human diseases. Extensive research in the past decade has shown that data sets generated by various “Omics” technologies represent a unique resource for biologists. However, a number of challenging technical and conceptual issues have been identified. These issues and resulting solutions will, ultimately determine their impact on biology and medicine. Some of the issues include completeness and reproducibility of large-scale data sets, and how different data types obtained from the same and different systems can be integrated. Perhaps most importantly, a key objective of the meeting will be to explore the development of simple and robust methods for understanding the meaning of “Omics” data. This in turn will further facilitate the integration and dissemination of the data. MEETING OBJECTIVES: 1. Explore the current status of interfacing “Omics” and molecular and cell biology in general, and specifically in selected areas of research. 2. Explore the current status of computational analysis of data generated by “Omics” technologies with respect to their potential to support both high-throughput and traditional molecular and cell biological research with an emphasis on disease-related projects. 3. Explore emerging “Omics” technologies with respect to their suitability to interface with molecular- and cell-biological research. 4. Provide an interactive forum to involve new investigators and highlight their discoveries.