CFP for Special Session on

Applications of Machine Learning in Medicine and Biology

http://www.utdallas.edu/~ying.liu/MLMB.html

of

Fifth International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA’ 06)

http://www.cs.csubak.edu/~icmla/icmla06/icmla06.html

December 14-16, 2006 - Orlando, Florida, USA

The biomedical technologies have advanced greatly in past decade. As a result, biomedical data are flooding in at an enormous rate. In particular, genome sequencing, microarrays, proteomics, functional and structural genomics, coupled with published biomedical literature have led to the exponential growth of the biomedical data. Recent research in biomedical computing and informatics is focused on transforming all these heterogeneous data into biological knowledge about the underlying biological system.

Machine Learning (ML) techniques have found widespread applications in biomedical data analysis. Many ML algorithms, methods and tools are extensively used by biologists, such as stochastic models of DNA, classification or clustering methods for gene expression data. Nevertheless, routine application of ML techniques to large scale biomedical data set is still a relatively new occurrence. New techniques of analysis as well as novel modification of existing algorithms and procedures are required because of the novel nature of the biomedical data, which creates new opportunities for collaboration of the two communities and poses new challenges for the rest of ML community.

This special session aims to bridge the gap between machine learning and bioinformatics, and provide a platform to present and discuss recent advancements in the area of application of ML methods in the medical field. We encourage papers on novel machine learning algorithms (including, but not limited to, classification, regression, clustering, probabilistic learning, inductive logic programming, evolution learning and reinforcement learning) and applications for tasks such as:

• Protein folding and protein/RNA structure prediction, 
• Inference of genetic and molecular networks, 
• Functional and comparative genomics. 
• Gene expression analysis
• Phylogenetics
• Drug design
• Text mining in Bioinformatics
• Disease detection, diagnosis, treatment planning, and prognosis
• Knowledge-based medical decision systems
• Knowledge representation and reasoning in medicine
• Computational methods for modeling and simulation of biological systems

The special session will be an integral part of the ICMLA06 conference i.e. submission, acceptance decision and publication will be made using the same procedures as for papers submitted to the conference. Click (http://www.cis.fiu.edu/ICMLA06/s1/myreview/) to submit your paper. Papers must correspond to the requirements detailed in the instructions to authors, which are placed on the conference web site. All accepted papers must be presented by one of the authors to be published in the conference proceeding. Selected best papers accepted for the special session will be invited for publication in a special issue of the International Journal of Data Mining and Bioinformatics.

The key dates for this special session are:

Paper deadline: July 31st, 2006 (Deadline extended!)

Notification of acceptance: September 1st, 2006

Camera-ready papers: October 1st, 2006.

The special session organizers

Ying Liu, Ph.D.

University of Texas at Dallas

ying.liu@utdallas.edu

Feng Luo, Ph.D.

Clemson University

luofeng@cs.clemson.edu

Chris Ding, Ph.D.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Li Liao

University of Delaware

Mohammed Zaki, Ph.D.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute