WORKSHOP ON INFECTIOUS DISEASE ONTOLOGY
September 19 - 20, 2007

In association with
INFECTIOUS DISEASE: A CHALLENGE FOR
BIOMEDICAL INFORMATICS
September 21, 2007
Meeting Details

Workshop Application Deadline: June 30, 2007

Biomedical research is in a state where sound ontologies are desperately needed to enable integration, exchange and reuse of data, to support sophisticated computational analyses of data, and to facilitate human understanding of data that crosses disciplinary boundaries. As a consequence, there has been, in the last two years, a surge of interest in ontology within the biomedical research community, evidenced by creation of the National Center for Biomedical Ontology as part of the NIH Roadmap. Because the field of biomedical ontology is so new, its influence hasn't yet extended to all areas of biomedicine, and the field of infectious disease research remains largely untouched by ontology-based technology. We have therefore planned a two-day training event designed to provide early-career infectious disease researchers (postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty) with the knowledge and experience needed to start developing and using ontologies. Additionally, we hope to foster networking of groups engaged in infectious disease informatics research and to contribute to the coordination of future ontology development activity.

Day one of this two-day event will be divided into two background sessions designed as independent modules. The first will be an introduction to immunology and infectious disease and is intended to provide needed background to researchers from an ontology or informatics background. The second will be an introduction to the principles and techniques of ontology development and is intended to provide needed background to infectious disease researchers and other biologists.

During the second day of the workshop, attendees will apply what they have learned in hands-on ontology-development exercises which will lead to the creation of a simple draft ontology of infectious diseases and to a road map for further development of this ontology.

A detailed curriculum for the two-day workshop is available here.

The event will be followed on September 21 by a day-long, public meeting comprising a series of talks given by infectious disease researchers and ontologists. A description of the meeting is available here.

Participants should leave the workshop and meeting with 1) a solid understanding of the ways in which ontology can address the needs of infectious disease research, 2) knowledge of good exising ontologies, 3) the ability to critically evaluate ontologies, and 4) the ability to begin developing and utilizing ontologies.

Cost for the full three days (tuition, room, meals): $995
Full scholarships and travel awards are available for selected applicants. Please see the descriptions of the selection and application processes for this course, which differ slightly from those described for other CSHL meetings and courses.
[Applicants also attending the CSHL meeting on Microbial Pathogenesis & Host Response (9/15/2007 - 9/19/2007) who are not offered partial or full scholarship support will be eligible for a $200 discount on the fee for the three-day Infectious Disease Ontology event].

We thank the Burroughs Wellcome Fund for their generous support of this workshop.