Volume 4iDarwin AS 0024 (2024 AD)

Meeting Report
iDarwin volume 4, pages 1-3
Published on February 9, AS0024 (2024 AD)
After Commemorative Symposium and Lecture
for the 39th International Prize for Biology
SATTA Yoko
Deputy Director and Professor,
The Research Center for Integrative Evolutionary Science (RCIES),
SOKENDAI, Hayama, Kanagawa 240-0193, Japan
Email: satta@soken.ac.jp
The Commemorative Symposium and Lectures for the 39th International Prize for Biology were held at Yokohama
Landmark Tower (25F) on December 16 (Sat.) and 17 (Sun.) last year under the co-sponsorship of SOKENDAI, the Graduate
University for Advanced Studies, Hayama and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
This year's International Biology Prize in the eld of "Genome Biology" was awarded to Dr. Richard Durbin, Al Kindy
Professor of Genetics at the University of Cambridge. Dr. Durbin was recognized for his development of numerous fundamental
and innovative technologies that support the data science of biology in the eld of bioinformatics, a eld that combines biology
and informatics, and for his leadership of numerous international genome projects.
More than 150 people participated on both days, both on-site and online. On Saturday the 16th, we held an international
symposium for researchers, inviting three researchers from overseas and three from Japan, with seven speakers including Dr.
Durbin. All three Japanese researchers were in the eld of bioinformatics, but the three from overseas spoke on a wide range oftopics, including research on the population dynamics of human populations, natural selection using yeast, and solving problems

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related to human genome sequencing, with "evolution" as the keyword. Dr. Durbin also gave a lecture. I was impressed by Dr.
Durbin's lecture, in which he mentioned the importance of being able to share the results obtained through genome sequencing
and other genome projects.
The lecture on Sunday the 17th was open to general public in Japanese. Dr. Durbin's lecture was given in English withsimultaneous interpretation. It was impressive that he spoke of the state-of-the-arts in bioinformatics clearly to general public. We
also invited seven Japanese researchers to speak, two in the bioinformatics eld and the remaining ve specializing in genome
biology. The audience asked a lot of questions at these lectures.
Through these two days, I realized the excellence of Dr. Durbin's research, and at the same time, I strongly felt that theconnection between genome biology/genome evolution and bioinformatics will be the foundation for the further development ofbiology as data science in the future.
The two-day programs are posted here.
December 16th, 2023 Symposium===================================================================================================TimeSpeaker
Ttile of Lecture===================================================================================================
9:30- 9:35
9:35-10:20
10:25-11:10

Arikawa Kentaro (SOKENDAI Executive Director)
Asai Kiyoshi (The University of Tokyo, Professor)
Kawaguchi Risa (Kyoto University, Junior Associate Professor)

11:15-12:00

Jianzhi "George" Zhang (University of Michigan, Marshall W.
Nirenberg Collegiate Professor)
Lunch Break
Heng Li (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School,Associate Professor)
Rémi Tournebize (French National Centre for Scienti c Research /University of Toulouse Paul Sabatier, Postdoctoral Researcher)
Break
Iwasaki Wataru (The University of Tokyo, Professor)
Richard Durbin (University of Cambridge, Professor)
Arikawa Kentaro (SOKENDAI Executive Director)
Reception

12:00-12:55
12:55-13:40
13:45-14:30
14:30-14:55
14:55-15:40
15:45-16:45
16:45-16:50
17:00-19:00

Opening Remarks
Genomic information deciphered by language models
Deciphering epigenetic landscapes for variations in gene
regulatory networks in mammals
The loci of environmental adaptations in a model eukaryote

The assembly of a human pangenome
De-composing evolution: on population structure and human history

Bioinformatics for revealing rules behind genome evolution
Insights from high quality genome sequencing across the tree of life
Closing Remarks===================================================================================================

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iDarwin AS 0024 (2024 AD)

December 17th, 2023 Public Lecture (in Japanese)===================================================================================================TimeSpeaker
Ttile of Lecture===================================================================================================
10:00-10:05
10:05-10:55

Arikawa Kentaro (SOKENDAI Executive Director)
Richard Durbin (University of Cambridge, Professor)

11:00-11:35
11:40-12:15

Iwasaki Wataru (The University of Tokyo, Professor)
Shigenobu Syuji (NIBB*/SOKEDAI, Professor)

12:15-13:15
13:15-13:50
13:55-14:30
14:30-14:45
14:45-15:20

Lunch Break
Shimizu Kana (Waseda University, Professor)
Oota Hiroki (The University of Tokyo, Professor)
BreakFujiwara Haruhiko (The University of Tokyo, Professor)

15:25-16:00

Hirakawa Hideki (Kazusa DNA Research Institute,Senior Chief Researcher)
Hasebe Mitsuyasu (NIBB*/SOKEDAI, Professor)

16:05-16:40
16:40-16:45

Opening Remarks
The genome sequencing revolution in biology(Lecture in English with simultaneous interpretation)
Information technology leading the data science revolution in biology
Changing genomes, evolving symbiosis - Exploring theinterdependence of organisms from DNA information
Privacy protection technology for secure use of human genome data
Human evolution revealed by genome research
Supergene regulates Batesian mimicry observed in only
female swallowtails
Deciphering the genome sequence of plants and its applications
Evolution of a sensitive plant and insectivorous plants as revealed
by genomics
Closing Remarks

Kotani Kazuhiro (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science,Director)===================================================================================================*NIBB = National Institute of Basic Biology
Edited by SAITOU Naruya

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