WORKSHOP

"Sorting, Simulating and Decoding Cells: Lineages, Networks and Systems"

Marseille (France), July 1-2, 2014

Deadline: May 15, 2014

hosted by IMéRA Institute Méditerranéen de Recherches Avancées,
Marseille
(France)

http://www.imera.fr/

Over the last decades, computer technology has changed the praxis of the
life
sciences radically. Before computational biology, biologists employed the
microscopic eye, hands, paper and pen to observe, detail, order and
classify
the mass of dividing and multiplicating cells into a system of lines and
connecting nodes. For example, by arithmetic tagging, which was early
introduced by botanists, the cell observers of the 19th century traced each
cell and its descendants, finally condensing the vast number of dividing
cells
into the mapped figures of horizontal 'ball embryos' and the vertical
diagrams
of cell lineage. These diagrams, the shape of which partly resembles
computational flow charts, became a convincing and long-lasting visual
argument for the cellular (and later genetic) processes of biological
development, comparable to regulatory genetic networks, the time-lapse
samples
of video-microscopy, or maps of cell fate specification nowadays. Both
modes
of graphic representation are mapped images, both consist of parameters and
data. However, the coded graphs generated by computational software
encompass
an immense number of data, when compared to the limited number of cells the
biologists of the 19th century had to identify.

This IMéRA workshop will address the issues of (1) how to handle 'big
biological data' with the means of devices, practices, and models, and (2)
how
to convert the information into knowledge and novel understanding of
biological development. Our main objective here is to contrast the most
recent
visual representation of molecular cell biology, EvoDevo, and computational
systems biology to the manual visualization of comparative embryology (or
developmental history), classic cytology and (cyto)genetics around 1900.
For,
we want to critically examine in which aspects the old and new practices of
data accumulation and analyses resemble to or differ from each other.

Instead of a textual abstract we prefer the proposal of a title,
supplemented
by images, as we want to bring about an intellectually stimulating and
perspective discussion about the diverse modes of mapping cells. The
images/
figures can be a historical one with an iconic significance nowadays, an
original or a redesigned figure, improving a classic or well-established
visualization. For, our intention is to organize the workshop around visual
and theoretical arguments on past and present modes of cell mapping. We
plan
to print the best images for a poster exhibition at IMéRA.

We welcome contributions from young scientists and scholars from different
disciplines (e.g., life sciences, history and philosophy of science, or
history of technology, art history). To engage in lively debates, we are
especially interested in experimental, visual, conceptual and historical
contributions that elucidate and advance the issues and themes of our
workshop
dealing with the experimental, conceptual and visual knowledge of cells
from
the 19th century to the 21st century.

Deadline for proposals: May 15, 2014.

We will inform about the accepted proposals by May 22, 2014.

For any further question about the workshop, or for submitting a proposal,
please send your query/proposal to Sabine Brauckmann,
sabine.brauckmann@ehi.ee.

Confirmed participants include (in alphabetical order): Matthias Bruhn
(Humboldt University Berlin), Ariane Dröscher (University of Bologna),
Sara
Franceschelli (ENS Lyon), Pierre-Francois Lenne (IBDML, Marseille), Nadine
Levin (Exeter University),


ORGANIZERS

Sabine Brauckmann, IMéRA Marseille (France) and Science Center, University
of
Tartu (Estonia), sabine.brauckmann@ehi.ee
Vincent Bertrand, IBDML, Aix-Marseille Université (France),
vincent.bertrand@univ-amu.fr
Denis Thieffry, ENS Paris (France), thieffry@ens.fr
Bruno Vila, IMBE, Aix-Marseille Université (France), bruno.vila@imbe.fr