From Functional Genomics to Systems Biology

In order to gain a systems level understanding of a given process, cell or organism, the current challenge is to convert these static qualitative maps into dynamic quantitative models of cellular processes. This rather daunting task can only be achieved through a multidisciplinary approach, which requires intensive integration of technology and thinking from many diverse fields, including basic biology, genomics, computational biology, mathematics, engineering and physics.

The main objective of this conference is to bring people together from these diverse disciplines to exchange ideas, promote cross-disciplinary collaborations and to form a synthesis of appropriate systems-level approaches. The meeting will cover all aspects of functional genomic approaches to systems biology, going from the genome to phenotype.

These include transcriptional networks, protein interaction networks, functional interaction networks (synthetic lethal screens, genetics, RNAi), synthetic biology, multi-dimensional data integration and qualitative and quantitative modelling. This broad scope has been the format of this meeting every since it was initiated in 2002. The meeting has since been held every two-years, with the 2010 meeting being the fifth biennial meeting.