***Apologies for multiple posting. Please kindly disseminate this Call for Papers to your colleagues and contacts***Special session on “Parallel and distributed high-performance computing solutions in Systems Biology” hosted by PDP 2018 (http://www.pdp2018.org/) Computer Lab, Cambridge, UK 21-23 March, 2018 Important dates - Paper submission: 30 November, 2017 - Acceptance notification: 10 December, 2017 - Camera ready due: 24 December, 2017 - Conference: 21 - 23 Mar, 2018 Organized by: Daniela Besozzi (co-chair), University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy Paolo Cazzaniga (co-chair), University of Bergamo, Italy Marco S. Nobile, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy Carlos F. Lopez, Vanderbilt University, USA Aim and Scope Systems Biology deals with the analysis of natural systems at various scales of complexity, requiring different modeling frameworks and computational methods. The applicability of these approaches may be hampered by excessively burdensome execution times. The scope of this special session is to bring together researchers involved in the development of computational methods specifically accelerated either by means of conventional architectures (e.g., computer clusters, GRID computing) or by unconventional technologies (e.g., Graphics Processing Units, Many Integrated Core coprocessors, cloud computing, biomimetic devices). Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: - analysis at the single-cell level - analysis and visualization of genome-wide models - analysis of robustness of cellular networks - Bayesian inference of biological systems - biomedical model parameterization - cancer progression models - design of synthetic biological components and circuits - drug design - emergent properties in complex biological systems - flux balance analysis - biomedical image analysis - metabolic engineering - metabolic pathway analysis - models of neural activity - model verification and refinement methods - multi-scale modeling and simulation of biological systems - parameter estimation methods - personalized models in Systems Medicine - reverse engineering of reaction networks - software tools for Systems and Synthetic Biology - spatio-temporal modeling and simulation of biological systems Program Committee John Albeck (UC Davis, USA) Daniela Besozzi (University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy) Michael L. Blinov (University of Connecticut Health Center, USA) Tiziana Castrignanò (CINECA, Italy) Paolo Cazzaniga (University of Bergamo, Italy) Eric J. Deeds (University of Kansas, USA) James R. Faeder (University of Pittsburgh, USA) Mohammad Fallahi-Sichani (University of Michigan Medical School, USA) Hitoshi Iba (University of Tokyo, Japan) Daniel C. Kirouac (Genentech Inc., USA) David Klinke (West Virginia University, USA) Robin E. C. Lee (University of Pittsburgh, USA) Carlos F. Lopez (Vanderbilt University, USA) Molly Maleckar (Allen Institute for Cell Science, USA) Giancarlo Mauri (University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy) Marco S. Nobile (University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy) Ion Petre (Åbo Akademi University, Finland) Alex Pothen (Purdue University, USA) Daniele Ramazzotti (Stanford School of Medicine, USA) Filippo Spiga (University of Cambridge, UK) David Umulis (Purdue University, USA) Marco Villani (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy) Submission of papers Prospective authors should submit a full paper not exceeding 8 pages in the Conference proceedings format (double-column, 10pt) to the conference main track through the EasyChair conference submission system ( http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?confpdp2017 <https://euromicro-pdp2018-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/Redirect?ukey=1yNFAg-ytlyZo1yogmGJ84cw6klLpj7CSs8C1ZmVoRlU-290871323&key=YAMMID-95955778&link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.easychair.org%2Fconferences%2F%3Fconfpdp2017>). The possibility to submit a paper to a special session will appear soon. Double-blind review: the paper should not contain authors names and affiliations; in the reference list, references to the authors' own work entries should be substituted with the string "omitted for blind review". Publication: All accepted papers will be included in the same volume, published by the Conference Publishing Services (CPS). The Final Paper Preparation and Submission Instructions will be published after the notification of acceptance. Authors of accepted papers are expected to register and present their papers at the Conference. Conference proceedings will be submitted to IEEE explore, CDSL, and for indexing among others, to DBLP, Scopus ScienceDirect, and ISI Web of Knowledge. Conference post-proceedings The best papers submitted to this special session may be eligible for publication in a Special Issue of BMC Bioinformatics.