CFP

                        Information Systems
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     Special Issue on Bioinformatics and Biological Data Management

http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~zaki/IS.html

                              Editors
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         Mohammed J. Zaki                      Jason T. L. Wang
 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute      New Jersey Institute of Technology
zaki@cs.rpi.edu jason@cis.njit.edu
http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~zaki http://www.cis.njit.edu/~jason
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INTRODUCTION:
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Bioinformatics is the science of storing, extracting, organizing,
analyzing, interpreting, and utilizing information from biological
sequences and molecules.  It has been mainly fueled by advances in DNA
sequencing and genome mapping techniques. The Human Genome Project has
resulted in rapidly growing databases of genetic sequences.
New techniques are needed to analyze, manage and discover sequence,
structure and functional patterns or models from these large sequence
and structural databases. High performance data analysis algorithms
are also becoming central to this task.

Bioinformatics provides opportunities for developing novel data analysis
methods. Some of the grand challenges in bioinformatics include protein
structure prediction, homology search, multiple alignment and phylogeny
construction, genomic sequence analysis and gene finding, as well as
applications in gene expression data analysis, drug discovery in
pharmaceutical industry, etc. For example, in protein structure prediction,
one is interested in determining the secondary, tertiary and quaternary
structure of proteins, given their amino acid sequence. Homology search
aims at detecting increasingly distant homologues, i.e., proteins
related by evolution from a common ancestor. Multiple alignment
and phylogenetic tree construction are interrelated problems.
Multiple alignment aims at aligning a whole set of sequences
to determine which subsequences are conserved. This works best
when a phylogenetic tree of related proteins is available.
Finally, gene finding aims at locating the genes in a DNA sequence.

CALL FOR PAPERS:
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Due to the surge of interest in this exciting and rapidly expanding
field, Information Systems is planning a special issue on Bioinformatics
and Biological Data Management. We solicit papers with important new
insights and experiences concerning biological data analysis and modeling.
Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

DATABASE TECHNOLOGY:
Data mining and warehousing as applied to biology
Data types and modeling needed for biological analysis
Interactive exploration and visualization for biology
New indexing and search structures with applications to biology

BIOLOGICAL PROBLEMS THAT MIGHT REQUIRE INNOVATIVE DATABASE PERSPECTIVES:
Evolution and phylogenetic analysis
Protein structure prediction
Molecular sequence management and alignment
Recognition of genes and regulatory elements
Interpretation of large-scale gene expression data
Whole genome comparative analysis and synthesis
Modeling of biochemical pathways
Drug design and combinatorial libraries

Papers should be at most 30 pages long, double-spaced, in font size 10
or larger with one-inch margins on all sides.
Papers in PDF/PS format can be sent to zaki@cs.rpi.edu by email.

If electronic submission is not possible, please send five hard copies
to the following address:

Mohammed J. Zaki
Computer Science Department
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
110 8th Street
Troy, NY 12180 USA

IMPORTANT DATES:

9/1/2001       Final deadline for submission of papers
12/1/2001      Notification of 1st-round referee results
2/1/2002       Deadline for submission of revised papers
3/15/2002      Notification of final acceptance/rejection
4/15/2002      Deadline for having final papers at the publisher