DAY 1 - Welcome Reception & Poster Session

Wednesday, March 11: Arkansas Research Alliance Reception and Poster Session 5:00 to 9:00 PM
Statehouse Convention Center, Caraway Room, 101 S. Spring Street , Little Rock, Arkansas 72201 USA

• 5:00 – 9:00 PM Registration desk open
• 5:00 – 9:00 PM Poster Session (see abstracts)
• 5:00 – 9:00 PM Welcome Reception (Hors d’oeuvres provided; cash bar) sponsored by Arkansas Research Alliance

DAY 2 - Opening, Presentations & Posters Continue

Thursday, March 12: AR-BIC Conference 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM
Statehouse Convention Center, Caraway Room, 101 S. Spring Street , Little Rock, Arkansas 72201 USA

• 7:00 - 8:00 AM Continental Breakfast sponsored by UAMS College of Medicine
• 7:00 – 12:00 AM Registration desk open
• 8:00 AM - Conference begins & registration remains open until noon

• Welcome and introductory remarks
  Jerry Adams of Arkansas Research Alliance
  Daniel Rahn, Chancellor, Univ. of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
• Opening remarks: “A brief history of the Arkansas Bioinformatics Consortium”
  William Slikker, Jr., Ph.D., Director, National Center for Toxicological Research, US Food and Drug Administration

8:30 – 10:15 AM Session 1: Bioinformatics and Precision Medicine – A Medical School Experience

Session Chairs: Charlotte Hobbs (UAMS)

• 8:30 - 8:50 AM
  • Pediatric Personalized Medicine
    Bradley Schaefer, M.D., Director, Division of Genetics, College of Medicine - UAMS; Section Chief of Genetics and Metabolism in the College of Medicine’s Dept. of Pediatrics and Arkansas Children’s Hospital
• 8:50 – 10:15 AM

  Panel: Bioinformatics in an Academic Medical Center

  • 8:50 – 9:10 AM Gareth Morgan, M.D., FRCP, FRCPath, Ph.D.; Director., Myeloma
    Institute, UAMS; Deputy Dir., Rockefeller Cancer Institute, UAMS
  • 9:10 – 9:30 AM Donald Johann, Jr., M.S., M.D.; Associate Prof. of Medicine and
    Biomedical Informatics, UAMS; Dir. Informatics- Myeloma Institute
    9:30– 9:50 AM Mathias Brochhausen, Ph.D.; Assistant Professor of the Division of
    Biomedical Informatics at UAMS
  • 9:50 – 10:15 AM Final Questions

• 10:15 – 10:30 AM Coffee break sponsored by the University of Arkansas at Little Rock

10:30 – 12:00 AM Session 2: : Bioinformatics in FDA and Advancing Regulatory Science

Session Chairs: William Slikker (NCTR) and Weida Tong (NCTR)

• 10:30 – 12:00 AM
  
  • 10:30 – 11:00 AM Bioinformatics at NCTR
    Weida Tong, Ph.D., Director, Division of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics, NCTR/FDA
  • 11:00 – 11:20 AM Systems biology for lymphoma subtyping and biomarker identification
    Wenming Xiao, Ph.D., Division of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics, NCTR/FDA
  • 11:20 – 11:40 AM FDALabel Database - a Rich Resources for Study of Adverse Drug Reactions in Advancing Regulatory Science
    Hong Fang, Ph.D., Office of Coordination, NCTR/FDA
  • 11:40 – 12:00 AM Bioinformatics needs in translational proteomics and metabolomics studies
    Richard Beger, Ph.D., Director, Biomarkers and Alternative Models Branch

• 12:00 - 1:00 PM - Lunch sponsored by Arkansas Biosciences Institute

1:00 – 2:30 PM Session 3: : State-Wide Bioinformatics Activities and Resources

Session Chairs: Session Chairs: Rick McMullen and Cynthia L. Sagers (UAF)

• 1:00 - 2:30 PM
  
  • 1:00 - 1:20 PM Bioinformatics projects in the Cell and Molecular Biology Program at the University of Arkansas
    Douglas Rhoads, Ph.D., Professor, University of Arkansas Fayetteville
    1:20 - 1:40 PM Analysis of Transcription Factor Expression Level Changes Using NextGen Data
    Karl Walker, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
    1:40 - 2:10 PM A new framework for molecular pattern discovery and cancer gene identification
    Daniel Johnson, Ph.D. Candidate, Arkansas State University
    2:10 - 2:30 PM Neuromodulation: A joint UALR-UAMS response to the BRAIN Initiative
    Keith Bush, Ph.D., University of Arkansas at Little Rock

• 2:30 - 3:00 PM Coffee Break sponsored by Arkansas Biosciences Institute
  

3:00 - 4:00 PM Session 4: : State Resources in Training and Education for Bioinformatics

Session Chairs: Malathi Srivatsan (ASU) and Mary Yang (UALR)

• 3:00- 4:00 PM
  • 3:00 - 3:20 PM Educational measures in bioinformatics at A-State
    Malathi Srivatsan, Ph.D., Director of Molecular Biosciences Graduate Program and Professor of Neurobiology at Arkansas State University
  • 3:20 - 3:40 PM New Initiative in UAMS for biomedical informatics training program
    Charlotte Hobbs, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Director of the Arkansas Center for Birth Defects, College of Medicine, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
  • 3:40 - 4:00 PM The joint UALR/UAMS bioinformatics program: 13 years of success stories in bioinformatics
    Cesar M. Compadre, Ph.D. , Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and,
    Mary Yang, Ph.D. , Associate Professor of Informatics Science at
    University of Arkansas at Little Rock and Director of the joint UALR/UAMS Bioinformatics Progra
  • 4:00 – 4:30 Discussion

4:30– 5:00 PM Session 5: : State Resources in Training and Education for Bioinformatics

Session Moderator: William Slikker, Jr., Ph.D., Director, National Center for Toxicological Research, US Food and Drug Administration

• Weida Tong, Ph.D., Director, Division of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics, NCTR/FDA
• Charlotte Hobbs, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Director of the Arkansas Center for Birth Defects, College of Medicine, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
• Rick McMullen, Ph.D., Former Director, Arkansas High Performance Computing Center, Research Professor of Computer Science at University of Arkansas

• 5:00 - Adjourn