Aim and scope: The theme of the school, Biological Networks: Evolution, Interaction and Computation, falls within the areas of Bioinformatics & Systems Biology, and deals specifically with bioinformatics aspects of systems biology. There are four lecture series, each of three hours, and six tutorials, each of one hour. The lectures will cover fundamental aspects relating to the evolution of biomolecular systems and their various levels of interaction. Two series of lectures are devoted to molecular evolution in viruses and more complex genomes, while the other two are devoted to mathematical and computational methods needed to infer networks both for evolutionary and functional studies. We note that detection of similarity and comparison of biological sequences and structures remains a fundamental task; in particular, although methods based on sequence alignments alone seem no longer adequate. Moreover, the comparison of biological networks, in order to infer common features, is a particularly important, yet largely unexplored, computational topic. The tutorials will cover the most recent advances in computational methods to establish similarity among biological structures: sequences, protein structures, networks and graphs. Moreover, they will also highlight recent additional results on protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions. Thus they nicely complement the main lectures. As is clear from the enclosed bibliography, the selected themes have received attention in the scholarly literature that ranges from Nature to BMC Bioinformatics and Bioinformatics. In its entirety the planned summer school will allow young researchers interested in bioinformatics and systems biology to be exposed to cutting edge results in the increasingly important area of network inference and analysis in biology.

List of Speakers

Lecture Series One (3 Hours)
Making Viruses, in Vivo and in Vitro [abstract]
Bill Gelbart, UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA

Lecture Series Two (3 Hours)
Biomolecular Network Evolution [abstract]
Sarah Teichmann, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK

Lecture Series Three (3 Hours)
Phylogenetic Networks [abstract]
Gabriel Valiente, Technical University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain

Lecture Series Four (3 Hours)
Comparative Analysis of Protein Networks [abstract]
Roded Sharan, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

Tutorials

Tutorial One (1 Hour)
Sequence Alignment Algorithms [abstract]
Alfredo Pulvirenti, University of Catania, Catania, Italy

Tutorial Two (1 Hour)
Methods for Structural Alignment and their Application to Linking Protein Folds [abstract]
Michael Levitt, Stanford University, Stanford, USA

Tutorial Three (1 Hour)
Alignment-free Classification and Comparison of Biological Sequences and Structures [abstract]
Raffaele Giancarlo, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy

Tutorial Four (1 Hour)
Fast Heuristics for Matching and Comparison of Biological Networks [abstract]
Rosalba Giugno, University of Catania, Catania, Italy

Tutorial Five (1 Hour)
Protein-DNA Interaction [abstract]
Jon Widom, Northwestern University, Chicago, USA.

Tutorial Six (1 Hour)
Methods for Comparing Protein Surfaces and their Application to Binding Site Recognition [abstract]
Concettina Guerra, Georgia Tech, USA, and U. of Padova, Italy

Participants will be arranged in a comfortable hotel at very special rates. The conference room (in the same hotel) is air-conditioned and equipped with all conference materials. Special areas are reserved to students for the afternoon coursework and study. The island of Lipari can be easily  reached  from Milazzo, Palermo, Naples, Messina and Reggio Calabria by ferry or hydrofoil (50 minutes from Milazzo).

Two kinds of participants are welcome. Students: Participants who are expected to do afternoon courseworks and take a final exam. Auditors: participants who are not interested in taking the final exam. Students who have successfully taken the final exam, will receive a 6 credits certificate.
Up to 80 students and 40 auditors will be admitted.
Registration fee is 350 Euro. The fee covers the course material, bus+hydrofoil Catania airport-Lipari-Catania airport, 1 social tour (Salina) and the social dinner on the beach of Vulcano. Late registration is 450 Euros.
Deadline for application is March 31, 2008. Applicants must include a short curriculum vitae and specify two professors whom letters of recommendation will be asked to, if deemed necessary. Applicants will be notified about admission by April 10, 2008

School Directors

Prof. Alfredo Ferro (University of Catania)
Prof. Raffaele Giancarlo (University of Palermo)
Prof. Concettina Guerra (University of Padova and Georgia Tech.)
Prof. Michael Levitt, (Stanford University)

People interested in receiving further information about the school can contact:

Prof. Alfredo Ferro
Universita' degli Studi di Catania - Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica
Citta' Universitaria - Viale A.Doria, 6 - 95125 Catania - ITALY
Tel: +39 095 7383071
Fax: +39 095 7337032 / +39 095 330094
E-mail:school [at] dmi [dot] unict [dot] it