[Taxacom] 2009 AMIA Summit on Translational Bioinformatics

[Neil Sarkar]

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

The American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) is pleased to  
invite the submission of papers, abstracts, panels, and posters for  
the 2009 AMIA Summit on Translational Bioinformatics. The Summit will  
be held March 15-17, 2009, in San Francisco, California, at the Grand  
Hyatt San Francisco. This year, submissions are sought in six  
categories--

Track 1: Informatics Methods for the Analysis of Molecular and  
Clinical Measurements
Track 2: Computational Approaches to Finding Molecular Mechanisms and  
Therapies for Disease
Track 3: Relating and Representing Phenotypes and Disease
Track 4: Dissecting Disease Through the Study of Organisms, Evolution,  
and Taxonomy
Track 5: Informatics Concepts, Tools and Techniques to Enable  
Integrative Translational Research
Track 6: Informatics Methods In Genetics Discoveries and Clinical  
Practice

Conducted in close partnership with the International Society for  
Computational Biology (ISCB), this meeting will be an indispensible  
gathering for translational bioinformatics research and development  
worldwide. With the completion of human and model organism genomes,  
and the increasing utilization of biomedical computational methods,  
translational bioinformatics is evolving rapidly into a complex  
multidisciplinary field encompassing nearly all areas of biological,  
biomedical and clinical research. Indeed, biomolecular and clinical  
informatics, statistical genetics and genomic medicine, are poised to  
jointly play an increasing role in accelerating the translation of  
knowledge discovery from genome scale studies to effective treatment  
and tailored disease management and health care. Building on the  
momentum and success of the inaugural 2008 Summit, we will continue to  
cover the specific and tractable needs of translational bioinformatics  
and more importantly, to identify challenges facing this emerging field.

This Summit highlights the multidisciplinary nature of this research  
field and provides a unique opportunity to bring together the finest  
minds in translational bioinformatics from the academia, industry,  
government and non-profit sectors. It aims to forge new trans- 
disciplinary collaborations and identify potential avenues of research  
and development across all areas of human diseases and patient care.  
The Summit is recognized by AMIA and ISCB as the key venue for the  
exchange of ideas in translational bioinformatics, and we encourage  
biomolecular and clinical informaticians, geneticists, computational  
biologists, biologists, clinicians, technologists, computer scientists  
and public health scientists to take advantage of this opportunity by  
actively participating. We believe you will find a category of  
submission that suits your station in the field of translational  
bioinformatics.

Reflecting the unique position of translational bioinformatics  
clinical research and healthcare management with an open mind towards  
the future trends, the 2009 Scientific Program Committee will design a  
comprehensive scientific program with tutorials, lectures, panels, and  
posters that are designed to feature the foremost breakthroughs in  
biomolecular and clinical informatics as well as the innovative  
deployment and translation of informatics research products to  
biomedical research. We hope this 2009 AMIA Summit will be a  
stimulating and informative experience and a testimony to the  
commitment of this research community to work together on unified  
interests to catalyze discoveries and innovations in research and  
patient care.

This is truly an extraordinary time for translational biomedical  
informatics research and development. We are certain that you will  
enjoy this occasion and be inspired. The past success of biomedical  
informatics in transforming clinical research and patient care is  
merely a glimpse to the remarkable promises it holds.

I hope to see you in San Francisco in March of 2009!

Neil Sarkar, Conference Co-Chair & Scientific Program Committee Track  
Chair
Marine Biological Laboratory

View the Call for Participation for learning objectives, tracks,  
committee roster, & submission classification and specifications  
details:
http://www.amia.org/meetings/stb09/Summit-CallForParticipation_Final.pdf

Visit the Summit submission site to contribute by Wednesday, September  
24, 2008:
http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/amiatbs2009