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Researchers in Life Sciences meet at the MareNostrum

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As part of the "Year of Science 2007", the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) and the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) will gather around 150 scientists from prominent biomedical research institutes and centres in Spain, to present the supercomputing opportunities offered by the MareNostrum in the field of the life sciences. The scientific conference, “Computational Biology: Biomolecular Simulations, Bioinformatics and Supercomputing”, will be held from 24-25 May at the Campus Nord at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC).

"MareNostrum optimus est", states Joan J. Guinovart, director of IRB Barcelona - one of the centres for research in biomedicine whose researchers in bioinformatics and molecular pharmacology regularly use MareNostrum to conduct their projects. "Owing to the calculation capacity of the supercomputer, unprecedented advances are being made in the understanding of biological systems that will ultimately benefit society as a whole", adds Dr Guinovart. Francesc Subirada, associate director at BSC-CNS, explains that "the BSC aims to foster collaborations between multidiciplinary research groups, thereby facilitating scientific progress. The collaboration between life sciences researchers and computational scientists is already bearing fruits in important areas such as molecular modelling, computational genomics and bioinformatics".

The seminars in computational biology will take place over two days, with presentations in the mornings and late afternoons. The lectures offered on the first day will be of a scientific nature; speakers from renowned centres of bioinformatics in the country and current users of the MareNostrum will present innovate scientific results obtained in 2006 with the help of the supercomputer. The lectures given on the second day will be more technical and the team of BSC experts will present different scientific projects. The efficient use of supercomputing resources applied to the field of bioinformatics, including some practical examples of the node of the Instituto Nacional de Bioinformática (National Institute for Bioinformatics;INB), will also be explained.

All attendees will have the opportunity to visit the MareNostrum. This conference is sponsored by Genoma España, INB and Silicon Graphics.

For the full programme, please visit
www.bsc.es/compbiol2007

IRB Barcelona

El Instituto de Investigación Biomédica (IRB Barcelona) trabaja para conseguir una vida libre de enfermedades. Desarrolla una investigación multidisciplinar de excelencia para curar el cáncer y otras enfermedades vinculadas al envejecimiento. Establece colaboraciones con la industria farmacéutica y los principales hospitales para hacer llegar los resultados de la investigación a la sociedad, a través de la transferencia de tecnología, y realiza diferentes iniciativas de divulgación científica para mantener un diálogo abierto con la ciudadanía. El IRB Barcelona es un centro internacional que acoge alrededor de 400 científicos de más de 30 nacionalidades. Reconocido como Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa desde 2011, es un centro CERCA y miembro del Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST).