Banquet Keynote

Dr. Jack Y. Yang Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts USA & Dr. Mary Qu Yang National Human Genome Research Institute National Institutes of Health (NIH) U.S. Dept. of Health of Human Services Bethesda, MD USA

Rapid advances in sequencing technology have made our ability to sequence genomes outpaced our ability to analyze the resulting data, our research involves developing and implementing efficient and reliable computational methods that lead to automated determination of gene functions and protein structures coded by genomes.

Recently, the National Human Genome Research Institute and National Cancer Institute, both part of NIH, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, have launched The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) with an overarching goal of understanding the molecular basis of cancer to improve our ability to diagnose, treat and prevent cancer. The perspective of the TCGA project is that “cancer is not a single disease but a collection of diseases that arise from different combinations of genetic changes”. Based on the mission of TCGA, we have proposed a further parallel paradigm on cancer: it is not only the genetic changes (i.e. mutations of genes) but also changes of gene expressions and regulatory networks that are ultimately responsible for cancer development. Under this parallel paradigm, not only mutations of genes cause changes in gene regulatory networks; but also un-mutated genes with differential expressions and alternative splicing may also induce changes in the differential regulatory networks (that also cause cancer) when cells are subjected to unusual environments.

We consider that developing genomic functional analysis software tools is important to human genome and cancer genome research. We are interested in high-quality computational research work in relating sequence to function and its scientific impact. We use a broad array of techniques, which combine our expertise in biomedical approaches with sequence-based informatics approaches. Until now, these two approaches have largely been undertaken largely separately. However, the evidence is clear that the synergies between these approaches are very powerful. We are integrating these two approaches in the pursuit of solutions to important human genome and cancer genome research problems.

Our aim is to develop next generation computational solutions for structural and functional genomics - such as predicting gene function and protein structure from sequence, in silico screening of leading compounds and designing new drugs, and annotation of genes for human genome and cancer genomes through automated approaches. The efficient utilization of very large databases combined with large-scale genomic computing is a significant computer science and engineering as well as biomedical problem, we focus on the software development of new generation of computational intelligence for the human genome and cancer genome research that will lead to new understanding of human diseases and potential treatment. Therefore, we are developing synergistic computational intelligence and bioinformatics approaches to discover how normal tissues can “spontaneous” transform into cancer and how to diagnose and prevent microscopic diseases (“invisible” cancers).

Biography

Drs. Jack and Mary Yang received their Ph.D. and M.S. degrees and Dr. Mary Yang received an additional MSECE degree, all from the Purdue University, West Lafayette main campus. They received their their B.S. / Engr.D. degrees in China. Dr. Mary Yang received her National Certificate of Post Doctoral Training from National Institutes of Health and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Jack Y. Yang received his Post Doctoral Research Training from Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, and IU Medical School at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Dr. Mary Yang had been a professional engineer in software engineering and research scientist in electrical and biomedical engineering and Dr. Jack Yang had been an assistant professor of Purdue Engineering School and IU Medical School of IUPUI and Nanjing University. Drs. Jack and Mary received a number of distinguished awards including Best Paper Awards of Smart Engineering System Design Award for Distinguishing Benign and Malignant Tumors, Theoretical Developments in Computational Intelligence Award for Developing New Variants of Self-Organizing Feature Map Algorithms and Smart Engineering System Design Award for Classifying Multiply Labeled Proteins. Drs. Jack and Mary Yang are the Invited Keynote Plenary Speakers (all 23 sessions) of Artificial Neural Networks in Engineering 2006 international conference. Drs. Jack and Mary Yang have served as editors of a number of International Journals, including International Journal of Bioinformatics Research and Applications, Journal of Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics, Journal of Supercomputing and Journal of Data Mining and Bioinformatics (i.e. Consulting Editor, Area Editor, Reviewer's Editor and Associate Editor) and are currently on the editorial boards. They are also from time to time serving as ad hoc reviewers for journals that they are not editors. Dr. Mary Yang was a recipient of the Outstanding Interdisciplinary Bilsland Dissertation Fellow for biological physics and computer engineering dual degrees at Purdue University, West Lafayette Main Campus and the NIH Fellow for National Human Genome Research. Dr. Mary Yang is a research specialist at National Human Genome Research Institute - National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Health of Human Services and Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education - Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy. Dr. Jack Yang is a radiation oncology and biophysics researcher at Harvard University, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. They are interested in developing synergistic computational intelligence and laboratory molecular biology approaches for human genome and comparative cancer genome research.