Genome sequencing has been truly
flourishing the past several years. The completion of the human genome in April
2003 marked the beginning of a new era in genetics. Together with the mouse,
rat, dog, chimpanzee, chicken, and hundreds of other genomes, scientists are
obtaining the basis for studying biology at the nucleotide level. The recent
achievements have been possible because of advances in both sequencing
technology and computational methods for genomic assembly.
Demand for sequencing is not decreasing, however, but rather increasing. On the
one hand, cross-species comparison is the most fruitful way to computationally
analyze sequences and find regions of evolutionary
constraint. For that reason, it is desirable to sequence as many species as
possible: several yeast or Drosophila strains are being analyzed by
cross-species comparisons, and there are plans for large-scale mammalian
sequencing. On the other hand, the ultimate goal is medicine, where inexpensive
resequencing of a full human genome would have vast implications. The immediate
future of sequencing promises to be very exciting, on the one hand with large
ongoing sequencing projects, and on the other hand with development of many
novel sequencing technologies that promise to enable sequencing of a large
genome for as little as $1000.
The goal of this meeting is to bring together people from different disciplines
of genome sequencing. We will cover exciting ongoing projects such as sequencing
of environmental samples; on the technology front we will cover new technologies
having potential of reducing the cost of genome sequencing to a few 1000
dollars, including, miniaturized sequencing-by-synthesis,
sequencing-by-hybridization, single-molecule techniques, and fragmentation-based
techniques. On the computation side, we will examine new algorithmic problems
that arise by such technologies, as well as application and continuing
development of current assembly systems., and applications of genome data to
systems biology.
Topics include, but are not limited to:
Whole genome sequencing and assembly
Assembly of environmental samples and unculturable organisms
Novel technologies for efficient sequencing, resequencing, and mapping of a genome
Computational tools and methods related to genomic assembly and finishing
Computational genomic-based
approaches to systems biology