Preface

Proceedings Of The Fourth International Conference On Intelligent Systems For Molecular Biology

Volume

Proceedings Of The Fourth International Conference On Intelligent Systems For Molecular Biology

Contents

A special emphasis at ISMB-96 was genome analysis, as this year marks the completion of the sequencing of several genomes, including an eubacteria (H. influenza) and an eukaryote (S. cerevisiae), and the beginning of large scale human genome sequencing. Computational science has played a fundamental role in the progress of the Human Genome Project. Major contributions include the formulation of fingerprint mapping strategies, computationally efficient algorithms for physical and genetic map assembly, automated lane-tracking, basecalling, and sequence assembly, automated gene recognition, and efficient algorithms for sequence similarity identification. Databases and network information retrieval tools have been essential in coordinating a globally distributed project and in disseminating the results to biologists worldwide. It is no exaggeration to say that the Human Genome Project could not have achieved its success without the active involvement of computational scientists. The integration of structural biology, biophysics, and molecular sequence analysis in many papers has been particularly gratifying.