The primary goal of this conference is to bring together established and young investigators from the field of quantitative biology to share new approaches and discuss advances in this exciting and rapidly growing field of biology. This meeting will continue the conference's long tradition of exceptional and enthusiastic speakers presenting new research results at the frontiers of the area. The relatively small number of attendees and informal format of the meeting provide an ideal setting for germinating new scientific collaborations. Being held in Europe for the first time in the meeting's history, we expect the meeting to take on an additional role in building and strengthening international research connections.

Each of the conference's nine sessions begins with an introduction to the field by the session chair followed by two or three invited talks. In addition, there will be two afternoon poster sessions. The session chairs and invited speakers consist of established leaders and energetic new researchers who are at the forefront of quantitative biology. A wide variety of topics ranging from cell signaling to cancer to animal behavior will be represented at this conference. The talks will cover many spatial and temporal scales of biological phenomena, reflecting the diverse nature of theoretical biology, but also will represent fundamental connections between the broad-ranging topics through mathematical tools and concepts from, for example, probability theory and dynamical systems theory.

The conference's multidisciplinary nature fosters new collaborations between biologists and researchers from the mathematical sciences. The conference provides an ideal setting for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to interact with leaders in the field of theoretical biology. The breadth of topics represented at the meeting exposes researchers to new mathematical and computational tools that are being developed in fields different from their own. The conference provides a collegial and inclusive environment that encourages the participation of women and other groups that are underrepresented in science.