EPD meeting, September 2016

Please note: We are planning to have dinner together after the symposium.
If you decide to join us, please add your name to this list.

Scientific Program

(Near final version)

08:45 - 08:50 Welcome - Introduction
08:50 - 10:30

Session 1: Promoter structure and function

Talks:
08:50 - 09:20 Martha Bulyk: Harvard University (USA)
Influences of DNA sequence and histone features on transcription factor binding to nucleosomes
09:20 - 09:50 Bas van Steensel: Netherlands Cancer Institute (Netherlands)
Estimating transcription factor activities
09:50 - 10:10 Torrey Rhyne-Carrigg: University of California San Diego (USA)
The RNA Polymerase II Core Promoter in Bilateria
10:10 - 10:30 Andrey Buyan: Institute of Protein Research, RAS (Russia)
FANTOMUS: A Promoterome-Proteome Atlas of Human Skeletal Muscles
10:30 - 11:00 Coffee break + posters
11:00 - 12:30

Session 2: Technological advances in promoter research

Talks:
11:00 - 11:10 Xinchen Zou: MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences; London (UK)
An ancient YY1 boundary keeps transcription initiation upstream of the start codon at broad promoters
11:10 - 11:40 Alexander Stark: IMP, Vienna BioCenter (Austria)
Decoding transcriptional regulation
11:40 - 12:10 Yaron Orenstein: Bar-Ilan University (Israel)
Designing synthetic universal promoter sequences
12:10 - 12:30 Round table discussion:

  • What is a promoter, what is an enhancer?
  • Can we predict gene regulatory function from DNA sequence?
  • Can we engineer promoters with desired regulatory properties?
12:30 - 13:30 Lunch + posters
13:30 - 15:00

Session 3: EPIC TSS prediction challenge

Talks 1 - Background:
13:30 - 14:00 Sascha Duttke: Washington State University (USA)
Keynote on promoteromics
14:00 - 14:10 Shakunthala Natarajan: University of Bonn (Germany)
Eukaryotic Gene Promoter Seeker (eGPS): A Python tool for promoter analysis
14:10 - 14:20 Andrea Bernardini: University of Milan (Italy)
Structural modelling of the CCAAT-box periodic distance rules from the TSS

Talks 2 - Challenge presentation:
14:20 - 14:30 Philipp Bucher: Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics ( Switzerland)
Challenge overview, rules and timeline
14:30 - 14:50 Dmitry Penzar: Moscow State University (Russia)
Vsevolod Makeev: Cancer Research UK, Manchester (UK)
Lessons from the IBIS challenge and EPIC Implementation
14:50 - 15:00 Question session for prospective challenge participants
15:00 - 15:30 Coffee break + posters
15:30 - 17:10

Session 4: Sunsetting of EPD, next-generation biodata resources

15:30 - 15:45 Christophe Dessimoz Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (Switzerland)
The future of biodata resources
15:50 - 16:10 Philipp Bucher Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (Switzerland)
EPD today, sunsetting and outlook to the future
16:10 - 15:30 Julia Naas: Helmholtz Munich, Germany)
Open Problems in Single-Cell Analysis: Building a Community-Driven, Living Benchmarking Platform
16:30 - 17:10 Round table discussion:

  • What should a future biodata ecosystem look like?
  • FAIR principles in the era of AI agents
  • Role of publishers and funders in data-driven research
17:10 - 17:15 Closing remarks
19:00 -

Dinnier together for those who will still be around (more information to follow)