The XII International Congress on Molecular Systems Biology will be held in Lleida

BY BIOCAT

One of the main challenges of systems biology is to understand the evolution and properties of metabolic networks. This is necessary to understand biological design principles which can help to determine the emergency of specific molecular networks in relation to their functionality. "These design principles are fundamental for the practical implementation of artificially designed circuits and to describe new biotechnological solutions", explains teacher Albert Sorribas of the Biomedical Research Institute of Lleida.

International research in this field will be present in the XII International Congress on Molecular Systems Biology (ICMSB 2011), which will be held in Lleida from 8th to 12th May. Recognized researchers from all over the world will take part in it, like:

• Michael A. Savageau — UC Davis (USA)
• Eugene V. Koonin — National Center for Biotechnology Information i National Institutes of Health (USA)
• Adriano Henney — Programme Director German Virtual Liver Network
• Ricard V. Sole — Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Spain)
• Eberhard O. Voit — Georgia Tech (USA)
• Vassily Hatzimanikatis — Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland)
• James Sharpe — Centre de Regulació Genòmica (Spain)
• Guy Shinar — Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel)
• Paul Christou — ICREA Professor Universitat de Lleida (Spain)
• Santiago F. Elena — Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Plantas CSIC-UPV (Spain)
• Armindo Salvador — University of Coimbra (Portugal)

The congress wants to promote the opportunities of interaction and the open debate among researchers, from the examples and the conceptual problems related with the identification, the understanding, and the evolutionary emergency of the design principles until the technical aspects which can help in its study.

The four main subjects will be:

• 9th May: Modularity, Design Principles & Evolution.
• 10th May: Optimization and evolution.
• 11th May: Model building, network reconstruction and parameter estimation.
• 12th May: From design principles to synthetic biology. Possible industrial applications:

In the organizing committee there are representatives of the University of Lleida, the University of Coimbra, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University Rovira i Virgili and the Ecole Polytechnique Féderale of Lausanne (Switzerland).

Date: 8th to 12th May 2011
Venue: University of Lleida's Cappont Campus • Building Emblematic • C/ Jaume II, 67 bis • Lleida (Spain)

Registration