Ivo Sbalzarini is a Professor of Computer Science at TU Dresden.
Today the ISC 2019 conference announced that their keynote will be delivered by Professor Ivo Sbalzarini, who will speak to an audience of 3500 attendees about the pivotal role high performance computing plays in the field of systems biology. Under the title, The Algorithms of Life – Scientific Computing for Systems Biology, Sbalzarini will discuss how HPC is being used as a tool for scientific investigation and for hypothesis testing, as well as a more fundamental way to think about problems in systems biology.
Using computation as a model for the processes of life can be especially enlightening. For example, the component elements of biological systems, such as proteins and lipids, can be thought of as the hardware, while the genetic code plays the role of the software. The keynote abstract explains: “Each cell can therefore be understood as a mechano-chemical processing element in a complexly interconnected million- or billion-core computing system.”
Sbalzarini will also talk about the challenges of developing algorithms for data analysis, inference, and simulations to help understand the myriad biological processes that drive living systems. In addition, he will explore a number of practical approaches, such as employing real-time biomedical image analysis, the use of novel simulation languages, and the applications of virtual reality and machine learning techniques.
Sbalzarini’s background in computational science and biology enables him to draw both subjects together in a unique manner. In his current role as the Chair of Scientific Computing for Systems Biology on the faculty of computer science of TU Dresden, he is fostering innovative ways to apply scientific computing to the life science domain. He is also the Senior Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, as well as a member of the Faculty of Mathematics of TU Dresden.
In addition, Sbalzarini is the founder and head of the MOSAIC Group, which does research in the application of scientific computing to image-based systems biology. Scientists there draw on expertise in computers, mathematics, physics, and biology in order to develop interdisciplinary approaches to studying biological processes in a three-dimensional, temporal context. The group is following a co-design approach, where the nature of a given biological problem is the basis for developing novel computational methods and solutions.
The ISC conference takes place from June 16-20 in Frankfurt, Germany.
