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The first bioinformatics symposium for the Oklahoma Bioinformatics Society (OKBIOS 2004) was held on November 12th, 2004. A total of 225 people pre-registered for the conference, 30 more registered on site, and a total of 150 people attended. Participants came from all the major Oklahoma universities, companies, government agencies, regional colleges and even a few from high schools. A very interesting group of invited speakers (9 speakers, including one who spoke through an interactive Internet videoconference) presented on a diverse range of topics, encompassing academic, government and commercial efforts in bioinformatics. More than half the participants turned in a conference evaluation form and judging from the very positive feedback, OKBIOS 2004 was a success. Feedback suggested that participants especially enjoyed hearing about bioinformatics efforts and challenges from within non-academic sectors in addition to the academic talks. Vendors included ISC Bioexpress, who provided two door prizes for filling out evaluations and Silicon Genetics, who sponsored the student poster awards. In total, research groups from various Oklahoma institutions submitted 16 posters and 5 oral presentations, with 3 of those oral presentations being selected for presentation at the conference by the program committee. The program committee for OKBIOS 2004 consisted of Jonathan Wren (OU), Yuriy Gusev (OUHSC), Michelle Wiginton (OU), Sanjay Bidichandani (OUHSC), Patricia Ayoubi (OSU) and Ulrich Melcher (OSU). Organizers were invited to hold a related symposium on Synthetic Biology the day prior, which had approximately 70 participants and was also well received, making it a two-day event of bioinformatics-related symposia.
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