Bioinformatics has quickly become an integral part of life sciences research by enabling innovative computational approaches in an increasingly data-dense environment.

Inspired by the sold-out editions in 2016 and 2018, VIB (a non-profit life sciences research institute) is organizing this third edition to highlight recent developments in bioinformatics research, and to showcase its impact in medical, agricultural, and biotechnological research.

Nationally and internationally renowned speakers will present recent scientific findings in applied bioinformatics. They will shed light on the future perspectives of their research in the following plenary sessions:

• Microbial & plant genomics: from simple to complex
• Structural bioinformatics and proteomics
• Data integration, machine learning and networks
• Single cell bioinformatics

Besides an inspiring scientific program, conference participants will have ample networking opportunities during poster sessions and the conference dinner.

Speaker line-up:

• Roser Vento, Sanger Institute, UK
• Klaus Mayer, Helmholtz Zentrum München, DE
• Thijs Ettema, Wageningen University, NL
• Rohit Pappu, Washington University, US
• Patrick Aloy, Structural Bioinformatics Lab, IRB Barcelona, ES
• Helen Parkinson, EMBL-EBI, UK
• Nick Loman, University of Birmingham, UK
• Daifeng Wang, Stony Brook University, US
• Aedin Culhane, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute & Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, US
• Sushmita Roy, Dept. of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, University of Wisconsin, US
• Olga Vitek, Northeastern University, US
• Nikolai Slavov, Northeastern University, US
• Evangelia Petsalaki, EMBL-EBI, UK
• Ashley Lu, VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain & Disease Research, BE
• Sofia Forslund, Experimental and Clinical Research Centre (ECRC, a joint venture of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine and the Charité University Hospital), DE
• Laurent Gatto, De Duve Institute – UC Louvain, BE
• Erik Garrison, UC Santa Cruz, US

Travel Grants

We offer 5 travel grants to international attendees, which will reimburse travel costs up to 400 Euros. Are you interested in attending ABLS20 and want to have a chance on a travel grant? Submit your motivation below by clicking on the 'Apply for a grant' button before 15 November. The organizing committee will notify you of your travel grant acceptance on 22 November 2019. No registration is needed before submitting a travel grant proposal. When you’re awarded with a travel grant you will receive a practical email containing the next steps. Note that being awarded a travel grant does not mean being registered for the conference. Scroll down to apply for your grant.