Miguel P. Rocha - Böcker

The growth in the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology fields over the last few years has been remarkable and the trend is to increase its pace. In fact, the need for computational techniques that can efficiently handle the huge amounts of data produced by the new experimental techniques in Biology is still increasing driven by new advances in Next Generation Sequencing, several types of the so called omics data and image acquisition, just to name a few. The analysis of the datasets that produces and its integration call for new algorithms and approaches from fields such as Databases, Statistics, Data Mining, Machine Learning, Optimization, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. Within this scenario of increasing data availability, Systems Biology has also been emerging as an alternative to the reductionist view that dominated biological research in the last decades. Indeed, Biology is more and more a science of information requiring tools from the computational sciences. In the last few years, we have seen the surge of a new generation of interdisciplinary scientists that have a strong background in the biological and computational sciences. In this context, the interaction of researchers from different scientific fields is, more than ever, of foremost importance boosting the research efforts in the field and contributing to the education of a new generation of Bioinformatics scientists. PACBB‘13 hopes to contribute to this effort promoting this fruitful interaction. PACBB'13 technical program included 19 papers from a submission pool of 32 papers spanning many different sub-fields in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. Therefore, the conference will certainly have promoted the interaction of scientists from diverse research groups and with a distinct background (computer scientists, mathematicians, biologists). The scientific content will certainly be challenging andwill promote the improvement of the work that is being developed by each of the participants.

Biological and biomedical research are increasingly driven by experimental techniques that challenge our ability to analyse, process and extract meaningful knowledge from the underlying data. The impressive capabilities of next generation sequencing technologies, together with novel and ever evolving distinct types of omics data technologies, have put an increasingly complex set of challenges for the growing fields of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. The analysis of the datasets produced and their integration call for new algorithms and approaches from fields such as Databases, Statistics, Data Mining, Machine Learning, Optimization, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. Clearly, Biology is more and more a science of information requiring tools from the computational sciences. In the last few years, we have seen the surge of a new generation of interdisciplinary scientists that have a strong background in the biological and computational sciences. In this context, the interaction of researchers from different scientific fields is, more than ever, of foremost importance boosting the research efforts in the field and contributing to the education of a new generation of Bioinformatics scientists. PACBB‘14 contributes to this effort promoting this fruitful interaction. PACBB'14 technical program included 34 papers spanning many different sub-fields in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. Therefore, the conference promotes the interaction of scientists from diverse research groups and with a distinct background such as computer scientists, mathematicians or biologists.

This proceedings presents recent practical applications of Computational Biology and  Bioinformatics. It contains the proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Practical Applications of Computational Biology & Bioinformatics held at University of Salamanca, Spain, at June 3rd-5th, 2015. The International Conference on Practical Applications of Computational Biology & Bioinformatics (PACBB) is an annual international meeting dedicated to emerging and challenging applied research in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. Biological and biomedical research are increasingly driven by experimental techniques that challenge our ability to analyse, process and extract meaningful knowledge from the underlying data. The impressive capabilities of next generation sequencing technologies, together with novel and ever evolving distinct types of omics data technologies, have put an increasingly complex set of challenges for the growing fields of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. The analysis of the datasets produced and their integration call for new algorithms and approaches from fields such as Databases, Statistics, Data Mining, Machine Learning, Optimization, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. Clearly, Biology is more and more a science of information requiring tools from the computational sciences.

Biological and biomedical research are increasingly driven by experimental techniques that challenge our ability to analyse, process and extract meaningful knowledge from the underlying data. The impressive capabilities of next generation sequencing technologies, together with novel and ever evolving distinct types of omics data technologies, have put an increasingly complex set of challenges for the growing fields of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. The analysis of the datasets produced and their integration call for new algorithms and approaches from fields such as Databases, Statistics, Data Mining, Machine Learning, Optimization, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. Clearly, Biology is more and more a science of information requiring tools from the computational sciences. In the last few years, we have seen the surge of a new generation of interdisciplinary scientists thathave a strong background in the biological and computational sciences. In this context, the interaction of researchers from different scientific fields is, more than ever, of foremost importance boosting the research efforts in the field and contributing to the education of a new generation of Bioinformatics scientists. PACBB‘16 hopes to contribute to this effort promoting this fruitful interaction. PACBB'16 technical program included 21 papers spanning many different sub-fields in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. Therefore, the conference will certainly promote the interaction of scientists from diverse research groups and with a distinct background (computer scientists, mathematicians, biologists). The scientific content will certainly be challenging and will promote the improvement of the work being developed by each of the participants.

The success of Bioinformatics in recent years has been prompted by research in mole- lar biology and medicine in initiatives like the human genome project. The volume and diversification of data has increased so much that it is very hard if not impossible to analyze it by human experts. The analysis of this growing body of data, intensified by the development of a number of high-throughput experimental techniques that are generating the so called 'omics' data, has prompted for new computational methods. New global approaches, such as Systems Biology, have been emerging replacing the reductionist view that dominated biology research in the last decades, requiring the coordinated efforts of biological researchers with those related to data analysis, mathematical modelling and computer science. Computational methods have been helping in tasks related to knowledge discovery, modelling and optimization tasks. This workshop brings the opportunity to discuss applications of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology exploring the interactions between computer scientists, bio- gists and other scientific researchers. The IWPACBB technical program includes 29 papers (23 long papers and 6 short papers) selected from a submission pool of 51 papers, from 9 different countries. We thank the excellent work of the local organization members and also from the members of the Program Committee for their excellent reviewing work. October 2008 Juan M. Corchado Juan F. De Paz Miguel P. Rocha Florentino Fernández Riverola Organization

This volume (II) contains all publications accepted for the symposiums and workshops held in parallel with the 10th International Work-Conference on Artificial Neural Networks (IWANN 2009), covering a wide spectrum of technological areas such as distributed computing, artificial intelligence, bioinformatics, soft computing and ambient-assisted living: • DCAI 2009 (International Symposium on Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence), covering artificial intelligence and its applications in distributed environments, such as the Internet, electronic commerce, mobile communi- tions, wireless devices, distributed computing, and so on. This event accepted a total of 96 submissions selected from a submission pool of 157 papers, from 12 different countries. • IWAAL 2009 (International Workshop of Ambient-Assisted Living), covering solutions aimed at increasing the quality of life, safety and health problems of elderly and disabled people by means of technology. This event accepted a - tal of 42 submissions selected from a submission pool of 78 papers, from 9 d- ferent countries. • IWPACBB 2009 (Third International Workshop on Practical Applications of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics), covering computational biology and bioinformatics as a possibility for knowledge discovery, modelling and - timization tasks, aiming at the development of computational models so that the response of biological complex systems to any perturbation can be p- dicted. This event accepted a total of 39 submissions selected from a subm- sion pool of 75 papers, from 6 different countries.

The fields of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology have been growing steadily over the last few years boosted by an increasing need for computational techniques that can efficiently handle the huge amounts of data produced by the new experimental techniques in Biology. This calls for new algorithms and - proaches from fields such as Data Integration, Statistics, Data Mining, Machine Learning, Optimization, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. Also, new global approaches, such as Systems Biology, have been emerging replacing the reductionist view that dominated biological research in the last d- ades. Indeed, Biology is more and more a science of information needing tools from the information technology field. The interaction of researchers from diff- ent scientific fields is, more than ever, of foremost importance and we hope this event will contribute to this effort. IWPACBB'10 technical program included a total of 30 papers (26 long papers and 4 short papers) spanning many different sub-fields in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. Therefore, the technical program of the conference will certainly be diverse, challenging and will promote the interaction among computer scientists, mathematicians, biologists and other researchers. We would like to thank all the contributing authors, as well as the members of the Program Committee and the Organizing Committee for their hard and highly valuable work. Their work has helped to contribute to the success of the IWAPCBB’10 event. IWPACBB’10 wouldn’t exist without your contribution.

The growth in the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology fields over the last few years has been remarkable and the trend is to increase its pace. In fact, the need for computational techniques that can efficiently handle the huge amounts of data produced by the new experimental techniques in Biology is still increasing driven by new advances in Next Generation Sequencing, several types of the so called omics data and image acquisition, just to name a few. The analysis of the datasets that produces and its integration call for new algorithms and approaches from fields such as Databases, Statistics, Data Mining, Machine Learning, Optimization, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. Within this scenario of increasing data availability, Systems Biology has also been emerging as an alternative to the reductionist view that dominated biological research in the last decades. Indeed, Biology is more and more a science of information requiring tools from the computational sciences. In the last few years, we have seen the surge of a new generation of interdisciplinary scientists that have a strong background in the biological and computational sciences. In this context, the interaction of researchers from different scientific fields is, more than ever, of foremost importance boosting the research efforts in the field and contributing to the education of a new generation of Bioinformatics scientists. PACBB‘11 hopes to contribute to this effort promoting this fruitful interaction. PACBB'11 technical program included 50 papers from a submission pool of 78 papers spanning many different sub-fields in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. Therefore, the conference will certainly have promoted the interaction of scientists from diverse research groups and with a distinct background (computer scientists, mathematicians, biologists). The scientific content will certainly be challenging andwill promote the improvement of the work that is being developed by each of the participants.