UBC community members played a major role in the 15th European Conference on Computational Biology. Two of seven key note speakers were from UBC Utrecht and the main computational biology event in 2016 had it’s poster prize sponsored by UBC. About 1.200 experts in bioinformatics, biology, computational biology, medicine and systems biology met in The Hague for the 15th European Conference on Computational Biology  from 3-7 September.

Big data
The conference boasted 48 proceedings, papers and presentations which were all published in a supplement of the Oxford Journal Bioinformatics (Volume 32, issue 17, September 1, 2016). In addition, ECCB 2016 highlighted 24 presentations on previously published high-impact papers within the field of bioinformatics. About 500 posters were on display, and dedicated poster sessions were held. A selection of the posters and slides that were presented at ECCB 2016 are available on a dedicated ECCB 2016 channel on F1000Research.com.

UBC participation
Paulien Hogeweg, founding mother of the bioinformatics field, and Hans Clevers, inventor of the organoid technology, were two of the seven key note speakers. The poster prize was awarded to Raik Otto from Humboldt-Universität in Berlin. Jeroen de Ridder (UMCU and UBC) was involved as chair of the Highlights track and member of the organising committee.

Looking back at the successful conference, he said: “During the coffee breaks, the conference centre buzzed with activity. Delegates eagerly used the small coffee corners to engage in in-depth scientific discussions, continue question sessions, or discuss job opportunities. The Student Council booth drew the traditional attention from young researchers in the process of kick-starting their career and looking for job opportunities or ways to contribute to building the community.”

ISMB/ECCB 2017
The next edition of ECCB will coincide with the ISMB conference and will be held on 21-25 July 2017, in Prague, Czech Republic. ISMB/ECCB 2017 will again offer a diverse, engaging scientific programme and the broadest scope of any international bioinformatics/computational biology conference.