1999 Meeting

Fellow Bio-Ontologist:

I would like to invite you to the Second Annual Bio-Ontologist Meeting (Bio-Ontologies 99), on August 5th in Heidelberg, Germany. This is immediately before ISMB-99  August 6-10 in Heidelberg. Last year's kick-off meeting was a great success, and was a clear indication of the general interest and support people had for Ontologies in the life sciences. The goal of this consortium is the identification and promotion of a practical set of technologies that will aid in the knowledge management and exchange of concepts and representations in the life sciences. This meeting will focus on current issues and activities that are described in more details below:

Purpose and Scope

 Many in the group have been active since our last meeting and an agenda is being planned that will include the work currently being done in the following areas:

• Results from analyses and experiments on how to effectively exchange Ontologies, including a recommendation for a Common Ontologies Exchange Language

• Presentation of ontologies produced by members from various genomics efforts (e.g. Flybase, Saccharomyces GD, Mouse GB, ACeDB, Arabidopsis DB

• Specific uses of ontologies in research and drug discovery with special focus on Pre-Competitive Ontologies for the industry

We would like to invite others to present their work and views on both uses and  modeling of biological ontologies. Please submit abstracts for short talks or posters by July 1, 1999, to Eric Neumann, PhD. of NetGenics, Inc or Robin A. McEntire of SmithKline Beechman.

Some intended results of the meeting are:

• Action items to focus on what ontological and knowledge-management tools are available

• Work group addressing development of ontologies in particular areas of the Life Sciences, e.g. molecular biology, genetics, metabolic and signaling pathways, etc.

• Further support from other bio-research groups, as well as backing from industry

• Dissemination of information and results produced by this consortium

Facilities

The workshop will be held at the Marriott in Heidelberg which is one of the participating ISMB hotels and facilities. Attendees are expected to make their own arrangements for travel and accommodation (we assume most will simply extend their bookings for ISMB). For more info on hotels with special ISMB conference rates, see http://ismb99.gmd.de/hotel.html.

Registration & Fees

We have elected to charge a small fee to cover the incidental costs of organizing the workshop.  Registration fees will be $30 for students/postdocs, $45 for other academics and $60 for industry or commercial attendees. Registration includes coffee, tea, lunch and all workshop materials. Deadline for advanced registration is July 15.

All fees should be made payable in US dollars to NetGenics Bio-Ontolgies '99 and mailed to:

NetGenics, Inc.

1717 East Ninth Street

Suite 1600

Cleveland, OH 44114

Attn: Bio-Ontologies '99