The Sixth Annual Workshop of the Koret – UC Berkeley – TAU Initiative

The Sixth Annual Workshop of the Koret – UC Berkeley – TAU Initiative

A sixth annual workshop of the Koret - UC Berkeley - TAU (KBT) Initiative in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics took place on September 15-18, 2024 in CRG, Barcelona, Spain.

This conference is a joint collaboration of the Center for Computational Biology at UC Berkeley, the Edmond J. Safra Center for Bioinformatics (within the framework of the KBT Initiative program) and the Center for Regulatory Genomics (CRG) in Barcelona. The CRG is an international biomedical research institute whose mission is to discover and advance knowledge for the benefit of society, public health and economic prosperity. It has a strong computational biology focus, spanning the development of methods in sequence analysis, statistics and machine learning and also applications in genomics and functional genomics (see background details below).

The three-day conference titled "Advances in Computational Biology", was organized by Prof. Roderic Guigo (CRG), Prof. Haiyan Huang and Prof. Steven Brenner (PIs of the KBT Initiative program in UC Berkeley), and Prof. Ron Shamir (former head of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Bioinformatics and a PI of the KBT Initiative program in TAU).

The three-day workshop at CRG, Barcelona, brought together 43 researchers for lectures, scientific and social interactions. The meeting included researchers from UC Berkeley, TAU, CRG Barcelona and University Pompeu Fabra, Spain. In addition, leading computational biologists from Europe and the US were invited (see speakers' list below).

The event was opened on the evening of September 15 by a welcome dinner at La Dolça Herminia Restaurant in the old quarter of Barcelona, attended by all speakers. The organizers kicked off the event by welcoming the scientists. The evening was an opportunity to get to know new colleagues and to renew old connections.

The scientific program commenced on September 16 at 9:30 in the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park Auditorium with opening remarks by CRG Director Prof. Luis Serrano, Prof. Ron Shamir and Prof. Steven Brenner. It was followed by short talks presented by all participants, including a lively Q&A. The program was divided to sessions by research topics, including Genomes, Metagenomics & Metabolism, Diseases, Phylogeny & Evolution, Theory & Methods, and Proteins. Each session was moderated by a Chair who presented the speakers. Breaks and lunches during the scientific program allowed informal interactions and many new contacts were formed (see program below). Coffee and lunch breaks were enjoyed on the scenic terrace of the CRG overlooking the Mediterranean and the sandy beach below. Attendees were treated to glimpses of the American Cup boat races, which coincidentally took place during the conference.

At the evening of September 16, the scientists were invited to "Dinner with Stars", a special conference dinner and social event. Once the scientific program for that day ended, a bus took the participants to the Fabra Observatory, an old astronomical observatory in the hills high above Barcelona and one of its privileged viewpoints. The evening began with an astronomy-inspired dinner, served at dusk on the terrace with great views of the city below. Prof. Roderic Guigo and Prof. Haiyan Huang gave brief welcoming speeches.  Following dinner, the invitees explored the interior of the Observatory, including the museum, the meridian telescope and the grand dome, which still houses its original elements. Through the 1904 telescope—one of the largest and oldest in use in Europe—participants were able to observe Saturn, its rings, and even some of its many moons. The participants were very enthusiastic and were grateful for a memorable evening.

The conference was a great success. The workshop strengthened the collaboration between TAU, Berkeley, CRG and the invited international researchers. The participating scientists were highly enthusiastic and excited about the many synergies opening many potential collaboration partnerships.

Background details: The Koret program of Berkeley-TAU in computational biology and bioinformatics (KBT) is a collaboration initiative between the Center for Computational Biology at UC Berkeley (CCB), and the Edmond J. Safra Center for Bioinformatics at Tel Aviv University (TAU). The initiative is supported by a generous 5-year donation from the Koret Foundation. It funds joint grant-supported projects, a visitor program, seminars and workshops, all focusing on innovative research in bioinformatics.

The Center for Regulatory Genomics (CRG) is an international biomedical research institute whose mission is to discover and advance knowledge for the benefit of society, public health and economic prosperity. It has a strong Computational Biology focus from the development of methods in sequence analysis, statistics and machine learning to applications in genomics and functional genomics.

List of speakers

• International invited speakers

University of Copenhagen: Soren Brunak and Anders Krogh

Carnegie Mellon: Jian Ma

University College London: Christine Orengo

National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA: Teresa Przytycka and Cenk Sahinalp

University of Basel: Mihaela Zavolan  

• The Center for Regulatory Genomics (CRG)

Mafalda Dias, Roderic Guigo, Ben Lehner, Marc Marti-Renom, Cedric Noterdame, Luis Serrano,  Juan Valcarcel, Lars Velten and Donate Weghorn.

ICREA, Barcelona: Mario Caceres

UPF Barcelona: Baldo Oliva

• UC Berkeley

Steven Brenner, Haiyan Huang, Joseph Lewnard, Denis Titov and Ashley Wolf.

• Tel Aviv University

Gil Ast, Karen Avraham, Nir Ben-Tal, Elhanan Borenstein, David Burstein, Eli Eisenberg, Rani Elkon, Uri Gophna, Tzachi Hagai, Amit Huppert, Asaf Madi, Itay Mayrose, Tal Pupko, Saharon Rosset, Rotem Rubinstein, Ron Shamir, Roded Sharan, Noam Shomron, Orr Spiegel and Jérôme Tubiana.

For the program click here.

For pictures from the conference click here.