Interdisciplinary Statistics and Bioinformatics

The increased understanding of the genome has been one of the great success stories in biology over the past 50 years. Basically DNA in the genome contains genes which contain the information needed to build proteins, which in turn carry out the functions of life. However, many deep questions remain, and statistical ideas will play a central role in understanding genes and proteins. In particular the shape of a protein is one of the key properties which determines how a protein works. As one example, protein folding is a challenging problem in bioinformatics (a successful solution to this problem will surely lead to a Nobel prize nomination). The advances in geometric statistics and particularly shape analysis from LASR workshops enable us to explore new ways of modelling protein structure.Each year we select a topic at the cutting edge of research. LASR 2006 looks forward to exciting developments at the interface between statistics and bioinformatics. We believe we are the only Statistics Department in this country to make a strong commitment in research in statistical protein bioinformatics. For example, our speakers, Janet Thornton (Director, European Bioinformatics Institute, Cambridge) and Brian Athey (Director, Michigan Centre), are not exposed to statisticians and our aim was to get a good group of statisticians and bioinformaticians together for a joint dialogue.The workshop is primarily aimed at academic staff, research fellows and research students. Participants for Leeds research groups will be encouraged to attend, but we will focus on attracting a broad range of UK delegates. Where appropriate, keynote speakers have been imported from continental Europe and America to strengthen the UK science base. We expect about 80 participants coming from a wide variety of fields: statistics, bioinformatics, computer science and engineering. We also expect a number of non-academic and industrial participants. Published proceedings, including all papers and abstracts for posters, will be available for participants at the beginning of the workshop. The gradual building of expertise and research findings will enhance the position of UK research in this exciting area.The University of Leeds is well-placed to host such an event, with strong groups in both statistics, bioinformatics and the new centre of Statistical Bioinformatics