RECOMB-Seq

Sixth RECOMB Satellite Workshop on Massively Parallel Sequencing (RECOMB-SEQ)

SCOPE

Massively parallel sequencing continually pushes the limits of computational biology. The advent of the latest, ultra-high throughput sequencing technology drives data storage requirements to the extreme. Rapidly growing read length, paired with novel sequencing error characteristics, gives rise to novel algorithmic and statistical challenges. Massively parallel sequencing is becoming routinely applied to ever more areas of application, such as the exploration of 3-D genome organization and the dynamics of translation. This workshop brings together researchers from computer science, mathematics, statistics and the life sciences to discuss emerging frontiers in next generation sequencing. The emphasis of all contributed work will be on applying statistical and algorithmic approaches to improve sequence data management, analysis and interpretation.

TOPICS

  • Discovery and genotyping of genomic variants, including SNPs, indels and structural variants
  • Local and de novo sequence assembly, haplotype/ploidy-aware sequence assembly
  • RNA sequencing, including the analysis of RNA expression and novel transcript assembly
  • Methods for emerging sequencing technologies, such as single-cell or single molecule real time sequencing
  • New approaches to data storage management, such as new data index structure
  • Algorithms for construction and analysis of pangenomes
  • Sequencing approaches for the exploration of 3D genome organization
  • Translational applications of sequencing data, including cancer genomics and infectious disease diagnostics and surveillance
  • Epigenetics, including ChIP-SEQ analysis, methylation profiling, and histone modifications
  • Read-based approaches in genome-wide association studies
  • Read mapping
  • Metagenomics

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Program Committee Chairs:

  • Carl Kingsford, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Alexander Schoenhuth, Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica, Netherlands

Steering Committee: 

  • Ben Raphael, Brown University, United States
  • Inanc Birol, Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, Canada
  • Michael Brudno, University of Toronto, Canada
  • Eran Halperin, Tel Aviv University, Israel
  • Cenk Sahinalp, Simon Fraser University, Canada

CONTRIBUTIONS

We solicit contributions in four different categories as follows:

  1. Manuscripts describing original work on computational aspects of genomic research involving massively parallel sequencing. 
  2. Highlights Track abstracts. 1-2 pages describing computational aspects of work that has been published in a journal after October 1, 2014, or papers that are “in press” at the time of submission and are already linked on the journal web site. This track is joint with the main RECOMB conference.
  3. Abstracts for short talks. 1-2 pages describing original work, including software applications. These will be considered for short presentations as well as for posters.
  4. Posters.

CALL FOR POSTERS (AND SHORT TALKS)

Please submit a 250-word abstract of your poster that describes its primary results. Your submission should also include the author(s), their affiliations, the presenting author, the e-mail address of at least the contact author and the poster title as requested by the submission system. The abstract should be plain text and not contain figures. Accepted poster abstracts will be published as submitted in the conference book of abstracts. Abstracts submitted to the satellites will be considered for short oral presentation (“flash talks”).

Submissions for posters and short talks must be received in electronic form via the EasyChair system (using the same poster track for the main RECOMB conference) by February 15, 2016.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Manuscripts should be no more than 10 single-spaced US letter or A4 pages with at most a 6.5×9″ text area in at least 11 point font. Title and authors, corresponding author’s email address, 100-250 word abstract, references, figures, and tables all included. An optional short appendix may contain details or additional data to be consulted at the discretion of the program committee. Manuscripts must be submitted electronically in PDF format via the EasyChair system. Please select the “RECOMB-Seq and RECOMB-CCB” track in EasyChair and indicate on the first/abstract page that the paper is being submitted to RECOMB-Seq.

Submissions must be received in electronic form by February 4, 2016.

Manuscripts submitted for review should represent original, previously unpublished work. At the time of submission to the workshop, and for the entire review period, the work should not be under review by any other conference or scientific journal.

Accepted submissions will be accepted for a talk at the workshop and will further be considered for submission to journals.

SPECIAL HANDLING OF PAPERS SUBMITTED TO RECOMB 2016

If you would like to consider submitting a paper rejected by RECOMB 2016 to the satellite workshop, you may do so by the regular deadline of February 4. You must include in your submission the reviews received from RECOMB together with a rebuttal addressing the concerns raised by the reviewers. The submitted manuscript should also be modified according to the reviews, or provide an explanation of why modifications are unnecessary. All reviews will be treated confidentially and will only be visible to the PC members evaluating your paper.

Please note that acceptance to RECOMB-SEQ, RECOMB-CBB or RECOMB-Genetics is not guaranteed, even if you have revised your submission. All papers, including those submitted directly to either satellite meeting, will be equally evaluated on the basis of scientific quality, technical novelty and level of interest to the respective community.

PAPER SUBMISSION PROCEDURES

Submission of papers to RECOMB2016 will be through the EasyChair conference system, following the link from the conference web page. The submission system will be open startingJanuary 3rd, 2016 and ending February 4th, 2016. For full details, please see the submissions link at the conference website. Authors will be notified of acceptance or rejection by email on or before February 15th, 2016. An author of each accepted paper is expected to attend the workshop and present the paper; otherwise, alternative arrangements should be made to have the paper presented.

Bioinformatics JOURNAL PARTNERS WITH RECOMB SATELLITE WORKSHOPS

The Sixth RECOMB Satellite Workshop on Massively Parallel Sequencing (RECOMB-SEQ) and the Fifth RECOMB Satellite workshop on Computational Cancer Biology (RECOMB-CCB) are continuing their successful partnership with Bioinformatics.  Select papers accepted for the workshops will be considered for a special track publication in the journal Bioinformatics.

Bioinformatics is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research and software in computational biology. The journal was established as Computer Applications in the Biosciences (CABIOS) in 1985. In 1998, the journal obtained its current name. Bioinformatics is published by Oxford University Press, and as of 2014, the editors-in-chief are Alfonso Valencia and Janet Kelso.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: 

RECOMB-Seq, RECOMB-CCB:
Jared Simpson, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research
Christina Curtis, Stanford University
Christina Boucher, Colorado State University

KEY DATES:

February 4: Submission
February 5: Reviewers assigned
February 15: Reviews due & poster submission deadline
March 1: Program announced
April 16 & 17: Workshop