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Workshop 2: Aspects of Self-Organization in Evolution (November 14-18, 2005)

Organizers: Chris Adami and Claus O. Wilke

The purpose of this workshop is to examine the dynamics of adapting systems in terms of their self-organizing property, that is, their ability to spontaneously take on particular ordered, rather than disordered states. This property plays a role at many different levels: the molecular, viral, bacterial, network, and ecological. We propose to organize the workshop according to the levels of description, from molecular to trophic food webs. Topics will include self-organization in the transition from nonliving to living, evolution on neutral networks, evolution of biological complexity, adaptive radiation in bacterial evolution, and stability of trophic networks.

Schedule

Monday, November 14
9:30-10:00am Coffee and Registration
10:00-10:30am Welcome and Introduction: Avner Friedman and Chris Adami
10:30-11:30am Liaohai Chen: Bridging nonliving and living matter: Experimental approaches towards the creation of a protocell
11:30-1:30pm Lunch break
1:30-2:30pm Charles Ofria: Life in the Machine: Experimental Evolution with Digital Organisms
2:30-3:00pm Coffee break
3:00-4:00pm Chris Adami
4:00-7:00pm Reception and Poster Session
Tuesday, November 15
9:00-10:00am Santiago Elena: What can we learn about the mechanisms of genome evolution using viroids as model system?
10:00-10:30am Coffee break
10:30-11:30am Paul Turner: Evolution of mutational robustness in RNA viruses
11:30-1:30pm Lunch break
1:30-2:30pm Isabel Novella: Evolution of vesicular stomatitis virus in time-dependent fitness landscapes
2:30-3:00pm Coffee break
3:00-4:00pm Eddie Holmes: The evolution of RNA virus genomes: Adaptation and constraint
4:00-5:00pm Short Talks on Posters
Wednesday, November 16
9:00-10:00am Michael Doebeli: Adaptive speciation: theory and evolutionary experiments
10:00-10:30am Coffee break
10:30-11:30am Mike Travisano
11:30-1:30pm Lunch break
1:30-2:30pm Arjan de Visser: Adaptation in small versus large asexual populations
2:30-3:00pm Coffee break
3:00-4:00pm Daniel Segre
4:00-5:00pm Short Talks on Posters
Thursday, November 17
9:00-10:00am Yuri Wolf: Unifying measures of gene function and evolution
10:00-10:30am Coffee break
10:30-11:30am Claus Wilke: What are the determinants of protein evolutionary rates in yeast?
11:30-1:30pm Lunch break
1:30-2:30pm Dan McShea: A Universal Vector toward Increasing Complexity in Evolution
2:30-3:00pm Coffee break
3:00-4:00pm Tom Schneider: Molecular Information Theory: From Clinical Applications To Binding Site Evolution
4:00-5:00pm James Crutchfield: Objects that Make Objects: The Population Dynamics of Structural Complexity
6:00-7:00pm Drinks at the Holiday Inn
7:00-9:00pm Banquet Dinner at the Holiday Inn
Friday, November 18
9:00-10:00am Alpan Raval: Function elucidation from complex molecular interaction networks
10:00-10:30am Coffee break
10:30-11:30am Neo Martinez