The papers presented at 7th Young Scientists School “Systems Biology and Bioinformatics” (SBB’15): Introductory Note

A selection of papers prepared by participants of 7th Young Scientists School SBB’15 is presented in three Supplementary Issues to the journals of BMC series, namely, BMC Genomics, BMC Genetics and BMC Microbiology. SBB’15 took place June 22nd-25th in Novosibirsk, Russia (http://conf.nsc.ru/sbb2015). The series of Young Scientists Schools in Systems Biology and Bioinformatics (SBB) started several years ago, in 2008, as educational workshop associated with the large international conference series on bioinformatics known as BGRS\SB (Bioinformatics of Genome Regulation and Structure\Systems Biology) (http://conf.bionet.nsc.ru/bgrssb2016). After its inauguration year of 1998, BGRS/SBB held biannually at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics SB RAS in Novosibirsk. In a recent decade, it became a prime meeting venue for biologists, computer scientists, physicists, mathematicians and biochemists working in an interdisciplinary field of systems biology and computer genomics. Being the largest system biology meeting series in Russia, BGRS\SB-14 attracted participants from 27 countries. In the past BioMedCentral had published series of special issues based on best materials presented at the conference in BMC Genomics (http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcgenomics/supplements/15/S12), BMC Evolutionary Biology (http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcevolbiol/supplements/15/S1), BMC Genetics (http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcgenet/supplements/16/S1) and BMC Systems biology (http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcsystbiol/supplements/9/S2). In addition, the protein structure related studies presented by BGRS/SBB participants were collated as special issues in Journal of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (http://www.worldscientific.com/toc/jbcb/4113/01; http://www.worldscientific.com/toc/jbcb/11/01). [1] In addition, the SBB School series has its own history to be proud of. The first generation of its participants already matured enough to substantially advance in the field. A majority of the participants graduated with PhDs, and now are contributing to the school as the lecturers and to a number of world universities as professors. For some students, the conference became instrumental in obtaining their post-doc or first independent position in academic world. In many cases, the informal atmosphere of the school helped to spark a collaboration that later led to publications in leading journals or the dramatic changes in their science career. The Program Committee of the conference and SBB Schools series includes data analysis, bioinformatics and computational biology professionals from different countries. For the last decade, the SBB conference was co-chaired by Academician Prof. Nikolay A. Kolchanov of the Institute of Cytology and Genetics SB RAS, Russia and Prof. Dr. Ralf Hofestadt of Bielefeld University, Germany. System biology and bioinformatics are rapidly developing and wide fields of science knowledge. For Young Scientists Schools, every year is different as it comprises the topics for the trainings that are the hottest at the time of the event. In 2015, the SBB School concentrated on the modern genomics and an analysis of high-throughput sequencing data. The materials presented in the current special issue provide examples of seamless integration of experimental studies performed in the lab and the computer-assisted inquiries into in the complex patterns of the organization and the functioning of biologic systems at the molecular, cell, tissue, organ, and body levels. The scientific topics discussed in 2015 were presented at the following sections: Next generation sequencing (NGS) and data analysis Evolutionary bioinformatics Systems biology and gene network modeling In SBB’15 Supplements to BMC journals Genomics, we collected the best studies presented at the conference. Due to the general breadth of the field of Systems Biology and Bioinformatic, the manuscripts were accepted into three separate tracks, thus forming three Supplementary Issues, BMC Genomics, BMC Genetics and BMC Microbiology. Below we will describe contents of these issues.