Next meeting will probably be in March, 2006. Join the mailing list to receive the announcement.
The Western Massachusetts computational biology special interest group (SIG) formed in early 2005. This is being promoted as an academic-industry partnership and outreach group to the larger community in and near the Pioneer Valley. The organization of this SIG is supported by the Bioeconomic Technology Alliance, part of the Regional Tech Corp -- a western Massachusetts technology alliance, and by the Office of Industry Liaison and Economic Development (ILED) at UMass.
The goal of the CB-SIG is to support the expansion of biocomputing research and development in Western Massachusetts. Through regional events we aim to broaden interest, increase collaborations, and expand knowledge and awareness in emerging topics that intersect the computational, biological, engineering, and biotechnology fields.
We plan to address our mission primarily through informational and networking meetings held every 2-3 months. Meetings will host academic and industry speakers including:
We also will maintain this collaborative website of members and activities.
The expectation for this nascent group is to primarily serve as a networking organization to facilitate inter-disciplinary and cross-culture (academic/industry) relationships. We plan to regularly present bioinformatics-related topics of mutual interest to academic and industry participants and to support activities such as internships, research collaborations, small business grants, business start-ups.
Arnie Hagler, Adjunct Prof, Chemistry at U Mass and Founder and Chairman of ScienceMedia: Simulations of Biological Macromolecules.
Bob Handsaker, Broad Institute: The Broad Institute Genetic Analysis Platform
Michael Brudno, University of Toronto: Alignment of Whole Genomes: Algorithms and Tools.
Asst Prof Oliver Brock: "Computational methods for protein structure prediction in the context of the Protein Structure Initiative"
Mike Catalano, Product Manager at Protedyne: "Integrating LIMS in the context of closed-loop cherry picking"
Kickoff introductory meeting.