CAMDA runs in collaboration with ISMB. CAMDA is now an established full conference track at ISMB, representing one of its Communities of Special Interests (COSIs). This gives you wide exposure and further opportunities for interaction with colleagues without separate registration fees. You just register for a 2- or 4-day ticket at ISMB, specifying CAMDA as your interest.

CAMDA focuses on one of the grand challenges of our time, the intelligent exploitation of Big Data in the life sciences. In the post genomic era, an effective scientific interpretation of large datasets is key to new medical and biological insights from novel high throughput assays and the increasing size of biomedical studies. CAMDA puts a spotlight on the successful analysis and integration of the massive data sets now prevalent in the life sciences.

This year, the scientific committee of CAMDA has set three data analysis contest challenges:

• The MetaSUB Forensics Challenge presents hundreds of novel city microbiome profiles. Construct urban microbiome fingerprints and identify the geographical origin of mystery samples.
• The CMap Drug Safety Challenge presents clinical toxicity results and gene expression responses to hundreds of drugs. Compare or integrate responses of multiple cell lines, predict drug induced liver injury in humans. Opt into an FDA meta-analysis.
• The Cancer Data Integration Challenge presents clinical data, RNA-seq and microarray gene expression, and CNV from aCGH. Demonstrate a robust analysis approach improving the state of the art for both Breast Cancer and Neuroblastoma.

Leading scientists present their best methods and analyses in talks, complemented by poster sessions. Papers based on the submitted extended abstracts are published in the open access, fully indexed conference proceedings at Biology Direct. Related method papers can enter the ISMB proceedings track of the Bioinformatics journal.

All delegates vote for the best contributed analysis. The top three presenters win a free one-year subscription to F1000Prime (worth $250) and a free submission to F1000Research (worth $1000). The first prize in addition is awarded the prestigious CAMDA Trophy.

We cordially invite you to attend and contribute to CAMDA, and look forward to seeing you in Chicago!   (Travel fellowships available)