28th Annual Workshop on Mathematical and Statistical Aspects of Molecular Biology
19th-20th March, 2018 University of St Andrews, Scotland
About MASAMB
Bioinformatics and statistical genetics, twin themes of the long-running series of annual MASAMB meetings, have gained huge impetus from large-scale genome sequencing projects and development of high-throughput biological assay systems, including gene-expression, proteomic, metabolomic and single-cell genomics technologies. These immense data resources, and the underlying complexities of molecular and cell biology, provide exciting research opportunities for numerate scientists.
With typically around 80-120 participants from mathematics, statistics, computer science, bioinformatics, biology and related fields, the MASAMB meetings provide an intimate setting for exchanging ideas in methodological and applied research. Research students and scientists newly entering the field of genomic research are particularly welcome and encouraged to submit abstracts. Details of previous meetings are available at the MASAMB archive.
Likely topics for sessions this year
Next Generation Sequencing
Population Genetics
RNA Bioinformatics
Phylogeny and Comparative Genomics
Personalised medicine
Biological Networks
Systems Biology
Please find a group photo of this years MASAMB here.
Key dates
| Registration opens | December 15th, 2017 |
| Abstract submission deadline |
February 8th, 2018 |
| Registration ends |
March 1st, 2018 |
| Conference | March 19th-20th, 2018 |
MASAMB 2018 is grateful for sponsorship from:
Registration
registration . submission . committees
Registration
The registration fee is
- 90 GBP for students
- 130 GBP for researchers
- 200 GBP for industry participants
Fees include conference attendance, coffee, lunches, and conference dinner. To register now please click here
Programme committee
Maria Anisimova (Zürich University of Applied Sciences)
Rui Borges (Vetmeduni Vienna)
Oscar Gaggotti (University of St Andrews)
Andy Gardner (University of St Andrews)
Tanja Gesell (University of Vienna)
Antti Honkela (University of Helsinki)
Carolin Kosiol (University of St Andrews)
Andy Lynch (University of St Andrews)
Silvia Paracchini (University of St Andrews)
Anne Smith (University of St Andrews)
Gergely Szöllösi (Eötvös University Budapest)
Submission
Submissions of abstracts for talks are closed now. However, we still accept submissions for posters till the 4th March 2018!
A one-half page abstract should be submitted through EasyChair. Please choose two session titles from likely topics that most closely match the topic of your talk/poster and enter them as Keyword 1 and Keyword 2. Other keywords can be added as wished. Note that abstracts will only be considered after an online registration form has been filled and the registration fees have been paid.
Local organising committee
Lianne Baker
Carolina Barata
Carolin Kosiol
Sylvia Paracchini
St Andrews Bioinformatics Unit (StABU)
Programme
monday . tuesday
Abstract book can be downloaded here.
Monday 19th March:
Arrival
| 11:00-13.45 |
Registration |
| 12:45-13.45 |
Lunch |
| 13:45-14:00 | Welcome and Introduction |
Monday 19th March:
SESSION 1 Personal Medicine (Chairs: Silvia Paracchini, Andy Lynch)
|
14:00-14:20 |
Rowan Brackston and Michael Stumpf Quasi-potential landscapes and transition states in stem cell development |
|
14:20-14:40 |
Chantriolnt-Andreas Kapourani and Guido Sanguinetti Bayesian modelling of single-cell methylomes |
|
14:40-15:00 |
Ruth Bowness, Mark Chaplain, Gibin Powathil and Stephen Gillespie Exploring dormancy in M. tuberculosis using a hybrid discrete-continuum cellular automaton model |
|
15:00-15:20 |
Tommi Mäklin, Jukka Corander and Antti Honkela Reliable detection of coexisting bacterial strains |
| 15:20-15:40 | Ricard Argelaguet, Britta Velten, Wolfgang Huber and Oliver Stegle Multi-Omics factor analysis – a general framework for unsupervised integration of multi-omic data sets |
| Coffee Break |
Monday 19th March:
SESSION 2 Systems Biology (Chairs: Anne Smith, Gergely Szöllősi)
| 16:10-16:30 | Giorgos Minas and David Rand Long-time analytic approximation of large stochastic oscillators: simulation, analysis and inference |
|
16:30-16:50 |
Chiara Cotroneo, Michael Salter-Townshend and Denis Shields Computational prediction of clusters of bacterial genes |
|
16:50-17:10 |
Leanne Massie and Michael Stumpf Synthetic Nitrogen Fixing Bacteria: A Whole Cell Modelling Approach |
|
17:10-17:30 |
Grimur Hjorleifsson, Joe Wandy, Justin van der Hooft and Simon Rogers Probabilistic prediction of amino acid content in microbial secondary metabolites produced by BGC families |
| Poster Session I | |
|
20:00 |
Conference dinner |
Tuesday 20th March:
SESSION 3 Phylogeny and Population Genetics (Chairs: Oscar Gaggotti, Andy Gardner)
|
09:00-09:20 |
Andreas Futschik |
|
09:20-09:40 |
Francisco Perez-Reche, Ovidiu Rotariu, Norval Strachan and Ken Forbes |
|
09:40-10:00 |
Benjamin Singer, Antonello Di Nardo, Luca Ferretti and Jotun Hein |
|
10:00-10:20 |
Rui Borges, Gergely Szöllősi and Carolin Kosiol |
|
10:20-10:40 |
Bill Amos |
|
Coffee Break |
Tuesday 20th March:
SESSION 4 Systems Biology (Chairs: Anne Smith, Rui Borges)
|
11:10-11:30 |
Karol Nienałtowski, Tomasz Jetka and Michał Komorowski Bayesian approach to reconstruction of time series from snapshot data |
|
11:30-11:50 |
Thalia Chan, Ananth Pallaseni, Ann Babtie, Kirsten McEwen and Michael Stumpf Empirical Bayes Meets Information Theoretical Network Reconstruction |
|
11:50-12:10 |
Thomas Leyshon and Michael Stumpf Turing Instabilities in Boolean Networks: An Algebraic Geometry Perspective |
|
12:10-12:30 |
Lida Mavrogonatou and Vladislav Vyshemirsky Bayesian experimental design for model ranking in Systems Biology |
| Photo & Lunch break & Poster session II |
Tuesday 20th March:
SESSION 5 RNA-SEQ and Genomics (Chairs: Silvia Paracchini, Carolin Kosiol)
|
14:00-14:20 |
Jonathan Griffiths, Arianne Richard, Karsten Bach, Aaron Lun and John Marioni |
|
14:20-14:40 |
Joseph Ward, Elisabetta Versace, Giorgio Vallortigara and Silvia Paracchini Comparing and using multiple tools for RNAseq |
|
14:40-15:00 |
Anderson Brito and John Pinney Evolutionary dynamics of herpesvirus protein domains |
|
15:00-15:20 |
Christopher Penfold, Anastasiya Sybirna and Azim Surani Pseudospace ordering of cells from mammalian embryos using scRNA-seq data and GPLVMs with spatially-informative priors |
|
15:20-15:40 |
Sumon Ahmed, Magnus Rattray and Alexis Boukouvalas GrandPrix: Scaling up the Bayesian GPLVM for single-cell data |
| 15:40 | CLOSING STATEMENTS |
| 16:00 | FINISH (PUB) |
Venue
travel . accommodation . meals
Accommodation
The Premier Inn in St Andrews has a block booking of 20 rooms for 72.00GBP per night (double room single occupancy) that can be booked as package during the registration. If you wish to share the room (e.g., twin room) please contact the Premier Inn mentioning “MASAMB” to get one of the reserved rooms.
Delegates can also arrange their own accommodation.
Please note that St Andrews is a small town, so book early!
Venue
The conference is taking place in the Medical School lecture theatre (North Haugh Campus, see map below).
Lunches and posters will also be in this building.
Meals
Coffee, tea and lunches will be provided.
There will be a conference dinner at Lower College Hall.
All other meals to be arranged by delegates.
Travel
Directions to St Andrews by road, rail, or air.
Taxis from Edinburgh Airport can be cost effective if you share: Local taxi companies.
Location
Tourist Information
University of St Andrews
St Andrews
Fife
Conference Venue
Conference Venue
Medical and Biological Sciences Building University of St Andrews North Haugh St Andrews Fife KY16 9TF