Synopsis

The NetSciReg'14 symposium will explore recent advances in understanding the interplay between regulatory network structure and cellular function. It will approach the topic from three distinct angles, topics on which abstract submissions are welcome:

1. Effects of network structure on regulatory dynamics
      Theme: How much can we learn about the dynamics of a regulatory network from its wiring structure?

2. Design principles of small regulatory circuits
      Theme: Are there general design requirements for building small regulatory circuits with distinct biological functions?

3. Interdependence of regulatory network evolution and dynamics
      Theme: How did evolution shape the function and dynamics of cellular regulatory networks?

The half-day workshop will feature three invited speakers, three contributed talks, and concludes with a pannel discussion:

1. Pannel discussion - the future of mechanistic modeling in biology
      Theme: What do we (speakers, audience, invited panelists) think is missing from our conceptual or technical repertoire?
      Moderator: Dr. Erzsébet Ravasz Regan, Center for Vascular Biology Research, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center / Harvard Medical School

Invited Speakers (confirmed):

• Dr. Réka Albert, Professor of Physics and Biology,
  The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics,
  Pennsylvania State University
  
• Dr. Domitilla Del Vecchio, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering,
  Department of Mechanical Engineering, Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS)
  Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  
• Dr. Alexei Vazquez, Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology,
  Bioinformatics and Surveillance, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School,
  Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey
• Thomas Wytock (A. Motter group), Graduate Student,
  Department of Physics & Astronomy,
  Northwestern University
  

Winning abstract:

• Istvan (Steve) Ladunga, Professor of Computational Biology, Head of the Computational Biology Research Lab,
  Department of Statistics,
  University of Nebraska - Lincoln
  

Goal:

• Mix ideas that originate from top-down focus on regulatory networks with insight from smaller-scale modeling, tightly coupled to experimental biology.
• Spark new questions, seed the development of new approaches, and advance our understanding of regulatory network biology on multiple levels of organization.

Registration: Please follow instructions for registering at the main NetSci2014 conference site at NetSci2014 Registration page. The NetSciReg'14 workshop can be attended separately from the main NetSci conference with a 1-day registration. In addition, please send me a quick e-mail notifying me that your plan to attend, so we all have enough coffee at break time.

Organizer:
   Erzsébet Ravasz Regan
   Center for Vascular Biology Research
   Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center / Harvard Medical School

Sponsors:

• CVBR - Center for Vascular Biology Research
  Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School

• Alexei Vazquez Cancer Systems Biology Group
  Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

• The Motter Group - Physics of Complex Systems and Networks
  Northwestern University

• The Bentley Computational Biology Group
  Center for Vascular Biology Research, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School

• The Albert Biological Network Modeling Group
  The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, Pennsylvania State University