The 5th China Computer Federation (CCF) Conference on Bioinformatics was held in Harbin from October 16 to 18. This conference is an important academic event in the field of bioinformatics in China in 2020. The theme of this conference is “Cooperation and Sharing for Innovation, Science and Technology for Development”. More than 600 experts and scholars from more than 40 research institutions, including Tsinghua University, Peking University, Fudan University, and Nankai University, participated in this conference.
The conference set up 6 sub-forums with a total of 83 reports on topics such as biological big data and precision medicine, bioinformatics algorithms, bioinformatics mining and high-performance computing, biological networks and systems biology. During the two-day conference, experts and scholars conducted profound discussions on current hot topics in the field of bioinformatics, creating a high-level academic feast. They provided advice and suggestions for the development of precision medicine, the research on genetics of agricultural and forestry germplasm resources and biological big data analysis and mining both in China and Heilongjiang Province.
The conference was hosted by CCF, and co-organized by CCF Bioinformatics Committee and NEFU. At the opening ceremony, Vice President Li Shunlong delivered a welcome speech on behalf of NEFU. He introduced to the guests the characteristics and advantages of bioinformatics research in NEFU, and said that bioinformatics research has a positive role in promoting forestry research, wildlife resources protection and biodiversity research in NEFU. He hoped to take this conference as an opportunity to promote cooperation and innovation among experts and scholars in bioinformatics fields, to promote further development of bioinformatics research in NEFU, and to make new contributions to the construction of a beautiful China and the development of Heilongjiang.
A total of seven special speakers were invited to the conference. Prof. Aidong Zhang from the University of Virginia, Prof. Zhou Shuigeng from Fudan University, and Prof. Dai Daoqing from Sun Yat-sen University gave reports on cancer prediction, pathogenic gene detection and data integration in precision medicine, which provided innovative ideas for the development of high level personalized medical services in Heilongjiang province in the future. Prof. Yan Jianbing, Vice President of Huazhong Agricultural University, introduced the research progress and practical application of big data-driven quantitative genetics of maize, which provided effective empirical support for the genetics research of excellent germplasm resources in agriculture and forestry in Heilongjiang province. Prof. Wang Yadong of Harbin Institute of Technology, Prof. Li Xia of Harbin Medical University, and Aidong Zhang respectively introduced the progress of their research teams in genomic big data analysis, biomedical big data mining and cancer prediction, which was highly recognized by the experts and scholars at the conference.
On the afternoon of October 18, Professor Zhang Fa, Secretary-General of the CCF Bioinformatics Committee, made a comprehensive summary of the conference at the closing ceremony, and spoke highly of the efforts made by NEFU to successfully hold the conference. On behalf of the experts and scholars attending the conference, he expressed his vision of cooperating with NEFU and the bioinformatics research teams in Heilongjiang province to jointly promote the development of Heilongjiang.
