Preface

Genome Informatics Vol. 18 contains the peer-reviewed papers presented at the Seventh Annual International Workshop on Bioinformatics and Systems Biology held on July 31–August 2 of 2007 at Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo. This workshop started in 2001 as an event for doctoral students and young researchers to present and discuss their research results and approaches in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology. The first workshop was held in Berlin that was organized by Prof. Dr. Reinhart Heinrich (former Professor at Humboldt University Berlin), a co-founder of this workshop. Very regretfully, he died on October 23, 2006, at the age of 60. This volume is dedicated to the memory of Prof. Dr. Dr. hc. Reinhart Heinrich. Since 2001, the workshop has been held in Boston (2002), Berlin (2003), Kyoto (2004), Berlin (2005), and Boston (2006). In 2007, this workshop was held in Tokyo as a part of a collaborative educational program involving the leading institutions committing the following programs and partner institutions:

Programs
• Boston - Graduate Program in Bioinformatics, Boston University
• Berlin - The International Research Training Group (IRTG) “Genomics and Systems Biology of Molecular Networks”
• Kyoto/Tokyo - Joint Bioinformatics Education Program of Kyoto University and University of Tokyo

Partner Institutions
• Boston University
• Humboldt University Berlin
• Free University Berlin
• Max-Planck Institute of Molecular Genetics
• Hahn-Meitner-Institute
• Bioinformatics Center, Institute for Chemical Research, Kyoto University
• Department of Bioinformatics and Chemical Genomics, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyoto University
• Human Genome Center, Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo

The submissions were pre-screened by the program committee members and each submission was reviewed by three reviewers. We have selected 31 papers after revision. These papers will be indexed in Medline, and their electronic versions are freely available from the website of Japanese Society for Bioinformatics as Genome Informatics Online (http://www.jsbi.org/modules/journal/index.php/index.html). Former publications are also electronically available as Genome Informatics Vol. 15, No. 1 (2004), Vol. 16, No. 1 (2005), and Vol. 17, No. 1 (2006). We wish to thank all of those who submitted papers and helped with the reviewing process. We also wish to thank colleagues at Human Genome Center, The University of Tokyo, for their efforts in local arrangement, finance, and publication. In particular, Emi Ikeda, Masao Nagasaki, Hiroko Nishihata, Ayumu Saito, Asako Suzuki, and Ayako Tomiyasu.

Program Committee Chair:
Satoru Miyano
Organizers:
Charles DeLisi
Hermann-Georg Holzhütter
Minoru Kanehisa