VISUALIZING BIOLOGICAL DATA VIZBI

Two updates re. VIZBI 2015: First, the early registration deadline has been extended to February 7, 23:59 PST. Second, the program for the tutorial day has been finalised, now including 13 compelling tutorials to choose from. The tutorial rooms have limited capacity, so book soon to ensure your place.

One of the keynotes at VIZBI 2015 will be given by John T. Stasko, a pioneer in the fields of Information Visualization and Visual Analytics. John is currently Professor of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech; his research interests cover a wide range of topics including theoretical foundations of visualisation, interaction, and evaluation. With over 125 research articles, numerous best paper awards, and multiple organisational activities, John has played a major role in establishing Information Visualization and Visual Analytics as research areas of their own. His lab has developed several widely used systems, especially the Jigsaw tool for analysing document collections, which has been featured by various media.

VIZBI 2015 will take place March 25-27 at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA. It features 21 invited talks, posters and lightning talks from all participants, and 12 half-day tutorials. Remote participation is possible, and there are opportunities to promote your organization. Early registration closes 31 January 2015.

As with previous years, VIZBI 2015 (at the Broad Institute, USA) will be preceded by a tutorial day prior to the main meeting. The tutorial day (March 24, 2015) gives delegates the opportunity to learn about key methods and to gain hands-on experience with a variety of tools for visualizing biological data.

Running a tutorial can be an excellent opportunity to showcase your work. Tutors will also receive $40/student, equal to a third of the tutorial registration fee. Based on past experience, tutorials covering topical or widely-used tools and methods are likely to be well received, as are tutorials on principles of either data visualization or user experience design.

Please complete the tutorial proposal form, by 11.59 PST on December 28, 2014. Applicants will be notified on December 31, 2014.
We look forward to seeing your proposals!

Art Meets Science 2014 (at MDI Biological Laboratory, Bar Harbor Maine, USA, 1 July 1 – 30 September, 2014) features work from 43 artists exploring a wide variety of biological themes. Tours of the exhibit will be available by only reservation – call +1 207-288-3147).

Body Image (at UNSW Galleries, Sydney, Australia – 6 September to 8 November, 2014) features visualisations of complex scientific and biomedical data that arise from collaborations between artists and medical scientists – including VIZBI participants Drew Berry, Chris Hammang, and Kate Patterson. The exhibition takes viewers on enthralling visual journeys inside the human body, discovering aspects of blood flow, organ and cellular behaviour.

Noted scientist and artist David Goodsell (Scripps) will present three upcoming events in Sydney, as announced today in the Financial Review. David is the author of Molecule of the Month at RCSB Protein Data Bank. He will talk about tools for predicting small molecule interactions, his watercolour paintings of proteins and cells in molecular detail, and the processes and challenges of working at a molecular and cellular scale.

David Goodsell: Computational Docking with AutoDock
Wednesday, 28 May, 5:30 – 6:30 pm (free). NAB Auditorium, Garvan Institute, Darlinghurst

David Goodsell: On Making Science Beautiful
An evening event at the Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney, featuring David Goodsell, our three new biomedical animations, the finalists from the VizbiPlus Challenge, and an opportunity for audience members to give a 30 sec. lightning talk about their own projects bridging art and science. This event is geared towards the general public. Thursday, 29 May, 6:30 – 8:00 pm (tickets: $25 + BF) plus a mixer from 8:00 – 10:00 pm (free).

Unlocking the Protein Data Bank: A Masterclass with David Goodsell
This is a hands-on workshop for people interested in producing visuals using the resources from PDB. Friday, 30 May at 8:30 – 11:00 am (tickets: $35 + BF).

Just released on YouTube: video of Drew Berry’s awesome Virus one billion times installation, created for Melbourne’s White Night. Drew gave a short talk on this work at VIZBI 2014.

Today at the VizbiPlus premiere event in Melbourne, three stunning new animations were officially launched. Each animation deals with an important topic in human health, namely: type 2 diabetes, cancer, and the link between diet, the gut microbiome and health. These are the first of six animations planned as part of the VizbiPlus project, which aims to inspire and educate the public about cutting-edge biomedical research.

EMBL has released an interesting 4-minute video about VIZBI featuring interviews with various speakers, organizers, and participants.

The EMBL Events E-Newsletter has published an informative summary article about VIZBI 2014 entitled VIZBI 2014 – biological data visualization, music and the non-linear genome!

Julia Schüler’s engaging image ‘MetabolicPathTreemap’ was runner-up in the Art & Biology category, receiving second place based on popular vote by VIZBI 2014 participants. To recognise this work, NVIDIA have very generously agreed to sponsor an additional Quadro K5000 video card that Julia will receive – congratulations Julia!

Nick Love beautiful’s image ‘Transgenic Xenopus Mandala’ has won the Autodesk Award for Best Art & Biology Poster, based on popular vote by VIZBI 2014 participants. Congratulations to Nick, who will receive a free license for Autodesk Maya.

Heba Sailem’s innovative work ‘PhenoPlot: a Glyph-based Visualization Tool For High Dimensional Cellular Imaging Data’ won the NVIDIA Best Scientific Poster Award for VIZBI 2014, based on popular vote by VIZBI 2014 participants. Congratulations to Heba, who will receive a Quadro K5000 video card.

Some VIZBI 2014 speakers have geneously agreed to share slides from their presentation. Where available, these slides are at http://vizbi.org/2014/Speakers.

The VIZBI 2014 art & biology submissions are now available at: http://vizbi.org/Posters/?category=Art&year=2014

The VIZBI 2014 posters are now online! As you will see, some quite exciting new work will be presented next week! Note that the art & biology submissions remain unpublished – they will first be revealed prior to the outreach keynote on Thursday evening, then displayed on various screens.

March 15 is now the deadline for BioVis 2014 papers. Possible contributions include full scientific papers, scientific posters, participation in a data contest, or in a redesign contest. BioVis 2014 (July 11-12) will be held as a special interest group (SIG) meeting associated with the ISMB conference in Boston, MA, USA. For further details see http://biovis.net/.

For the upcoming Faraday Discussion on Molecular Simulations & Visualizations (7-9 May 2014; Nottingham, UK), the deadline for submitting a poster has been extended until March 10. Organized by the Royal Society for Chemistry (RSC), the discussion will bring together internationally recognised experts in applying advanced visualization (visual analytics, virtual and augmented reality, immersive graphics, GP-GPUs, cloud computing) to analyse molecular simulations across a range of applications in biology, chemistry, and materials science.

Bursaries for students and early career scientists are still available, which are worth £150.

http://www.rsc.org/ConferencesAndEvents/RSCConferences/FD/FD169/Registration.asp

In this video, Drew Berry talks about a unique exhibit he created for Melbourne’s White Night, which took place last weekend. Drew gave a keynote talk at VIZBI 2011, ran a tutorial at VIZBI 2013, and also plans to attend VIZBI 2014.

On the Tuesday evening before VIZBI (March 4), there will be a meeting of the Heidelberg Unseminar in Bioinformatics (HUB), a regular social event focused on design and visualisation in biology. Bring along any scientific figures you’re working on that you’d like to discus with others to brainstorm for ways to develop/improve. There is also the opportunity to give a 3-minute-max flash talk on your work in visualising biological data.

To join, either sign in for a HUB wiki account and add your name to the HUB10 participant list or send a mail with your name and affiliation to hub-hub@gmx.net.

Come and meet VizBiers and local Heidelbergers, the evening before VIZBI!