Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing 2002/2003/2004

Abstract

Brief introduction to Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing The Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing is an international, multidisciplinary conference covering current research in the theory and the application of computational methods in problems of biological significance. Researchers from the United States, the Asian Pacific nations and around the world gather each year at PSB to exchange research results and discuss open issues in all aspects of computational biology. PSB provides a forum for work on databases, algorithms, interfaces, visualization, modeling and other computational methods, as applied to biological problems. The data-rich areas of molecular biology are emphasized. PSB is the only meeting in the bioinformatics field with sessions defined dynamically each year in response to specific proposals from the participants. Sessions are organized by leaders in emerging areas to provide forums for publication and for discussion of research in biocomputing ''hot topics''. PSB therefore enables discussion of emerging methods and approaches in this rapidly changing field. PSB has been designated as one of the major meetings in this field by the recently established International Society for Computational Biology (see www.iscb.org). Papers and presentations are peer reviewed typically with 3 reviews per paper plus editorial oversight from the conference organizers. The accepted papers are published in an archival proceedings volume, which is indexed by PubMed, and electronically (see http://psb.stanford.edu/). Finally, given the tight schedule from submission of papers to their publication, typically 5 to 5 1/2 months, the PSB proceedings each year represents one of the most up-to-date surveys of current trends in bioinformatics.