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Media Invitation - Mastering the Complexity of Biological Data

October 18, 2002

Workshop "Ontology for Biology" at Villa Bosch, Heidelberg (November 7-8, 2002)

Advances in biotechnology and bioinformatics are generating a huge amount of information that can be used to better understand the secrets of life and the cause of diseases like cancer, AIDS, diabetes, etc. Scientists analyzing this information will have to face problems with the diversity of the data sources, of the contents, of formats, and of the meanings. This requires the creation and use of "intelligent" systems with databases that are able to store and handle biological concepts and data.

The international Workshop "Ontology for Biology" on November 7-8, at the Villa Bosch Studio in Heidelberg will try to take new steps towards this goal. Organizers are the European Media Laboratory (EML) and the Centre for Telematics and Information Technology, University of Twente. More than 60 researchers from fields as diverse as Computer Science, Linguistics, Biology, Medicine and Philosophy will meet to discuss how ontologies can be created, validated and applied.

An ontology is a description of concepts and their relationships. For example: A protein that catalyzes a biochemical reaction is defined as an enzyme. Using ontologies researchers can create computer-based tools that help them organize and understand the huge amount of biological information collected from experiments and scientific publications. Ontologies also help standardize the language used by biologists and provide the rules that a computer can use to automatically reason about information.

This workshop is defined within the framework "Integrated Approaches for Functional Genomics" of the European Science Foundation (ESF), and is the first workshop of this program completely dedicated to ontologies in biology. The ESF (www.esf.org/genomics) fosters the European development of new technologies in genomic and cellular functions. The workshop is sponsored by the European Science Foundation, by the Klaus Tschira Foundation, Heidelberg, and by ACE Biosciences, Odense/Denmark (www.acebiosciences.com).

The European Media Laboratory GmbH (EML) (http://www.eml.villa-bosch.de) is a private research institute for information technology and its applications. Its core concern is the development of new, intelligent information processing methods benefiting both individuals and society as a whole. EML researchers collaborate closely with universities and industry. At present the EML focuses largely on projects powered by the non-for-profit Klaus Tschira Foundation (KTS) (http://www.kts.villa-bosch.de). Like the KTS the European Media Lab is housed in the Villa Bosch in Heidelberg, the former residence of Nobel Prize laureate Carl Bosch (1874 - 1940).

A small number of journalists may participate in the workshop. Dr. Paul van der Vet (University of Twente), Dr. Isabel Rojas (EML), Luca Bernardi (EML), and the speakers will be available for interviews.
In order to keep the informal atmosphere, audio and video recordings are not allowed during the sessions.

Please address any inquiries to:
Dr. Peter Saueressig
Public Information Officer
European Media Laboratory GmbH
phone: +49-6221-533-245
fax:      +49-6221-533-198
peter.saueressig@eml.villa-bosch.de

European Media Laboratory (EML)