•    June 7-9, 2022
  • The COVID-19 pandemic has become the worst pandemic in at least a century. Its impact on everyday life, whether in terms of health or socioeconomic effects, has been devastating, and given its persistence, perhaps many of its consequences remain to be seen. At the same time, the pandemic has induced unprecedented international and multidisciplinary scientific efforts aimed at understanding all aspects of SARS-CoV-2 transmission at different scales and at finding solutions to end the pandemic.

    The Institute for Biocomputation and Physics of Complex Systems (BIFI), as a center that performs research in biological and complex systems, is particularly concerned with and involved in, COVID-19 research. It seems then timely for us to host the International Conference of 2022 around the COVID-19 theme. The Conference aims at providing a forum to discuss the latest advances and insights in the study of this pandemic. All topics that fit within the science of COVID-19 from a complexity, biological or interdisciplinary point of view are welcome. Below we list just a few examples of the tracks that will be covered.

    Transmission mechanisms: This topic includes studies ranging from the micro-scale -describing the binding mechanisms of the virus- to population-wide analyses of the transmissibility in different social environments. 

    COVID-19 & socio-economic impact: This subject includes works that study measures to mitigate SARS-CoV-2 propagation and their impact on the economy, coupled models of epidemic and economy, and fine-grained descriptions of populations that consider socioeconomic features, etc.

    Mobility patterns and pandemic: This topic includes studies dealing with worlwide spread of SARS-CoV-2, analyses of interventions based on mobility restrictions (like curfews or complete lockdowns), correlations between mobility patterns and diesease prevalence, data-driven mobility networks, and characterization of mobility patterns before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

    COVID-19 modelling: This track covers the mathematical and computational modeling of the spread of SARS-CoV-2, including data-driven agent-based modeling, compartmental models, simulations of COVID-19 waves, scenarios evaluation and forecasting, and models that account for behavioral changes and policy interventions.

    Drug development: This topic deals with all aspects of drug development, from basic and foundational studies aimed at finding vaccines and therapeitic targets, to clinical trials for vaccines and drugs.  

    COVID-19 & financial markets: The track includes studies dealing with the economic turmoil associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, and the severe impacts of the pandemic and interventions on financial markets, including stock, bond, and commodity markets. 

    Cellular & molecular biology: Biological research has thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic. This track includes subjects that range from genome sequencing and structural protein analyses to virology and immunology.