Network Science: Implications for Biology and Medicine
The University of British Columbia, January 19-22, 2005
Worldwide, morbidity and mortality related to infectious diseases create an enormous societal burden including premature loss of life and lost economic productivity. The principle that network structures govern infection transmission, population spread and ecological success is common to many infectious diseases. Since many biological and epidemiological processes can be represented by networks, it should be possible to apply the principles of network science to develop "intelligent" ways to describe the networks that govern infectious diseases biology. The capacity to do this would lead to major advances in the prevention and treatment of diseases of global importance such as pandemic influenza, tuberculosis, SARS, West Nile Virus, HIV, syphilis and many others.
The workshop brought together international experts from the fields of network science, epidemiology, microbial pathogenesis, proteomics, bioinformatics and sociology to promote in depth discussion around where these fields merge. The objective of the workshop was to facilitate the development of a focused research agenda that identified key challenges, unresolved issues and questions that needed to be addressed regarding network biology of infection and immunity.
Workshop funded by the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies |