The Fourth DIMACS International
Algorithm Implementation Challenge:

Two Problems in Computational Biology:
Fragment Assembly and Genome Rearrangements


In conjunction with its Special Year on Mathematical Support for Molecular Biology, the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science (DIMACS) invites participation in an international Implementation Challenge focussed on two problems from Computational Molecular Biology: Sequence Assembly (the problem of reconstructing a DNA sequence knowing only the sequences of many possibly overlapping fragments) and Genome Rearrangements (the problem of comparing two orders of genes).

The Implementation Challenge will take place between September 1994 and August 1995. Participants are invited to carry out research projects related to these problem areas and to present research papers at a DIMACS workshop to be held in September 1995. A refereed workshop proceedings will be published.

Challenge materials are also available via anonymous ftp from dimacs.rutgers.edu . This directory also contains some general information .

Lastest news are found in NEWS .

The Problems

There still is a large gap in Computational Molecular Biology between biological application and algorithmic work aimed at answering biological questions. It is the goal of this implementation challenge to help bridge this gap. Sequence assembly is the problem of reconstructing a DNA sequence knowing only the sequences of many overlapping fragments of it. Genome rearrangements is the problem of comparing two orders of genes under the assumption that one order is transformed into another by a series of rearrangments. For both problems there exist algorithms and software that in the case of fragment assembly is widely used.

Advisory Committee


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Document last modified on November 2, 1998.