Over the last two weeks I have been busy organising the first (hopefully annual) Network Biology Symposium at the University of Exeter. The symposium, which was held on June 13th and consisted of 9 talks, was funded by a Researcher-Led Initiative award from the Researcher Development Team. The aim of the full-day session was to bring together researchers from across the university with an interest in network approaches to biological problems. The talks ranged from looking at nutrient transport networks in yeast to mathematically modelling brain networks to investigating social networks in primates. There was a fantastic exchange of ideas and lots of interesting discussion among researchers from all disciplines. Next year I hope to run an expanded symposium and continue to bring together researchers with interesting computational approaches to the biosciences.
We have also recently had a visit from John Isaac, the head of Neuroscience and Mental Health at the Wellcome Trust. John had a tour of the labs and new facilities at the University of Exeter including the new Living Systems Institute that will open later this year. I got to meet John and participate in some discussion about the on-going neuroscience research at Exeter including my project with Jon Mill and Marc Goodfellow investigating effects of anti-psychotic drug treatment on methylation and transcription in brain tissue.
