The Future of Personalized Medicine

Workshop summary

Network biology, a field in the intersection of computer science and biology, is critical for deepening understanding of cellular functioning and disease. While the field is relatively young, there have already been rapid changes to it and new computational/algorithmic challenges have arisen, owing to many factors, including increasing data complexity. So, research directions in the field need to evolve accordingly. This workshop, funded by NSF award CCF-1941447, aims to identify pressing challenges in this field and propose solutions to the challenges. Thus, the workshop will help shape the short- and long-term vision for algorithmic research in network biology.

The workshop is a targeted meeting of scientists (primarily faculty or equivalent researchers in industry or government) who are doing active and state-of-the-art research in various aspects of network biology. The workshop will be held in person. The in-person component is critical for the planned highly interactive nature of the workshop, which is why we have waited for two years to hold this workshop, which was originally planned for 2020. Note that because of the pandemic-related uncertainty and changing policies related to international travel, we have been unable to invite for in-person participation those located outside of the United States. Yet, to allow for participation of international network biology researchers and others who have been unable to travel to the workshop venue, an online component of the workshop will be offered as well (details will be sent to confirmed online workshop participants). The in-person workshop participants will coordinate into teams corresponding to several key scientific topics in the field of network biology, and present their views of important current and future research directions on the topics. All (in-person and online workshop participants) will then have a chance to engage into lively discussions on any and all of the topics. A goal is to understand how the field of computer science and algorithms in particular is benefiting the field of network biology, and vice versa, and how to strengthen this synergy even further.