Subject: Pharma-IT Platform - Spring 2009 Newsletter + ** Lorentz-Center Workshop Update ** Dear Recipients of the Pharma-IT Newletter, We would like to update you on exciting recent developments in the Pharma-IT Platform - we organize a Lorentz-Center Workshop on 'Optimizing Drug Design', our next Interaction Meeting is coming up, several peer-reviewed publications are about to appear and we had new collaborators joining us. For up-to-the-minute information visit http://www.PHARMA-IT.net. ** Save the date ** The 4th 'Pharma IT Interaction Meeting' is coming! Day and time: Tuesday, May 14th, 4.30pm Location: Gorlaeus Laboratoria, Room GORL/07, Leiden University (1) Michael Emmerich and Alexander Aleman will talk about their work "Multi-Objective Compound Optimization" (2) Dr. Arno Knobbe and Marvin Meeng (LIACS) will introduce the new IGLOM Project, that aims at analysing life science data. Lorentz-Center Workshop on 'Optimizing Drug Design: Multicriteria Decision Making and Optimization in Drug Discovery and Cheminformatics' 20 - 23 July 2009, Leiden University For more information and registration see: http://www.lorentzcenter.nl/lc/web/2009/359/info.php3?wsid=359 1. Project Updates We have a new master student within the Pharma-IT framework, where Alexander Aleman started on Master Thesis on "Evolutionary Molecular Design using Self-Learning Search Operators". 2. New publications Three publications originating from the Pharma-IT framework were published recently: Ofer Shir, Mike Preuss, Boris Naujoks, Michael Emmerich: Enhancing Decision Space Diversity in Evolutionary Multiobjective Algorithms, EMO Nantes, LNCS Springer, 2009 J. Kruisselbrink, A. Aleman, M. Emmerich, A. Ijzerman, E. v. d. Horst, Th. Baeck: Enhancing Search Space Diversity in Multi-Objective Evolutionary Drug Molecule Design using Niching, GECCO 2009. Johannes Kruisselbrink, Michael Emmerich, Thomas Baeck, Andreas Bender, Ad IJzerman, Eelke van der Horst: Combining Aggregation with Pareto Optimization: A Case Study in Evolutionary Molecular Design, EMO2009, Nantes. 3. Finished Master Software Projects: Two students successfully finished their master projects recently: Alexander Aleman: “Diversity Maintenance in the Molecule Evoluator”, Master Project Report, LIACS, March 2009 (Extension of the molecular evoluator for enhanced diversity in the result set) Supervisor: M. Emmerich, J. Kruisselbrink, A. Bender Xiaofei Chao: “Flooding Algorithm for Barrier Forest on Poset-Valued Landscapes”, Master Project Report, LIACS, March 2009 (Algorithm and MATLAB software for Visualization of topological discrete/molecular landscape structure) Supervisor: M. Emmerich 4. Events: Interaction Meeting and Lorentz-Center Workshop The Pharma-IT Platform is happy to announce two meetings in the near future: The 4th 'Pharma IT Interaction Meeting' is coming! Day and time: Tuesday, May 14th, 4.30pm Program: Michael Emmerich and Alexander Aleman will talk about their work "Multi-Objective Compound Optimization" and Dr. Arno Knobbe and Marvin Meeng (LIACS) will introduce the new IGLOM Project, that aims at analysing life science data. Location: Gorlaeus Laboratoria, Room GORL/07, Leiden University as well as a Lorentz-Center Workshop on 'Optimizing Drug Design: Multicriteria Decision Making and Optimization in Drug Discovery and Cheminformatics' 20 - 23 July 2009, Leiden University For more information and registration see: http://www.lorentzcenter.nl/lc/web/2009/359/info.php3?wsid=359 Lorentz-Center Workshops are designed as interactive workshops with a relatively small number of about 40 participants which are meant to stimulate interaction and the development of new ideas. Attendance is free to allow as many interested researchers to attend as possible, and we also offer PhD travel grants. Please contact the organizers for details as well as for the submission of abstracts. Best wishes and looking forward to seeing you at the Interaction Meeting and Lorentz-Center Workshop! Andreas Bender and Michael Emmerich Academic Leadership Team of the Pharma-IT Platform http://www.PHARMA-IT.net ** The 'Pharma-IT Platform': An Initiative by Leiden University to Analyze Life Science Data Using Computer Science Methods. Find more information at http://www.PHARMA-IT.net. ** Do you know anyone else who would be interested to hear from the Pharma-IT Platform? Please forward this newsletter to him or her and ask him to subscribe to our update approximately every 3 months. ** In case you would like to change your subscription to this newsletter please just reply to this mail and let us know your requirements. Thank you!