Next Generation Statistics in Biosciences: Shape Analysis and Structural Bioinformatics

生物科学是21世纪的热门话题。这一领域尚未解决的重大问题之一是了解决定其形状的蛋白质折叠。这是决定蛋白质如何工作的关键特性之一。如果成功地解决了这个问题，肯定会获得诺贝尔奖提名。这一领域的最新进展是基于启发式方法。尽管做出了这些努力，但尚未取得真正的突破，还需要更复杂的方法。统计建模肯定会在这方面发挥重要作用。蛋白质的功能是由分子的形状决定的，通常具有相似结构的蛋白质具有相似的功能。利用这些关系所需的统计工具是形状分析领域，拟议的跨学科讲习班的目的是加强这一领域，并确保它对生物科学产生应有的影响。我们相信，形状分析将为结构生物信息学领域的未来发展提供一个重要的组成部分，利兹大学在引领这一发展方面具有独特的优势。为此，我们建议举办一次国际研讨会，汇集这两个领域的杰出研究人员。这一点现在尤其重要，因为英国统计研究企业目前处于脆弱和削弱的状态（国际数学评论2011,20-21页）。讲习班主要面向来自统计学、生物信息学和生物医学等广泛领域的学术人员、研究员和研究生。在适当的情况下，从欧洲大陆和美国引进了主讲人，以加强英国的科学基础。由此产生的专业知识和研究成果将提高英国在这一令人兴奋的领域的研究地位。利兹大学在统计学、生物信息学和新成立的统计生物信息学中心都有很强的研究小组，非常适合举办这样的活动。

Biosciences are the hot topic of the 21st century. One of the big unsolved problems in this area is to understand the folding of proteins which determines their shape. This is one of the key properties which determines how a protein works. A successful solution to this problem will surely lead to a Nobel prize nomination.Recent progress in this area has been based on heuristic methods. Despite these efforts, there has not been a real break-through and more sophisticated methods will be needed. Statistical modeling will be certain to play an important role in this. protein function is determined by the shape of the molecule, and often proteins with similar structure have similar function. The statistical tool which is required to make use of these relationships is the area of shape analysis,and the aim of the proposed cross-disciplinary workshop is to strengthen this area and to ensure that it has its due impact on the biosciences.We believe that shape analysis will provide an essential building block in the future development of the area of structural bioinformatics and the University of Leeds is uniquely positioned to lead this development . For this reason, we propose to hold an International Workshop to bring together eminent researchers in these two fields . This is particularly important now, since the UK statistical research enterprise is currently in a fragile and weakened condition (International Review of Mathematics 2011, pages 20-21).The workshop is primarily aimed at academic staff, research fellows and research students coming from a wide variety of fields: statistics, bioinformatics, and biomedicine. Where appropriate, keynote speakers have been imported from continental Europe and America to strengthen the UK science base. The resulting building of expertise and research findings will enhance the position of UK research in this exciting area.The University of Leeds is well-placed to host such an event, with strong groups in both statistics, bioinformatics and the new centre of Statistical Bioinformatics.