Book excerpt: The Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing (PSB) 2008 is an international, multidisciplinary conference for the presentation and discussion of current research in the theory and application of computational methods in problems of biological significance. Presentations are rigorously peer reviewed and are published in an archival proceedings volume. PSB 2008 will be held on January 4OCo8, 2008 at the Fairmont Orchid, Big Island of Hawaii. Tutorials will be offered prior to the start of the conference. PSB 2008 will bring together top researchers from the US, the Asian Pacific nations, and around the world to exchange research results and address open issues in all aspects of computational biology. It is a forum for the presentation of work in databases, algorithms, interfaces, visualization, modeling, and other computational methods, as applied to biological problems, with emphasis on applications in data-rich areas of molecular biology. The PSB has been designed to be responsive to the need for critical mass in sub-disciplines within biocomputing. For that reason, it is the only meeting whose sessions are defined dynamically each year in response to specific proposals. PSB sessions are organized by leaders of research in biocomputing''s OC hot topics.OCO In this way, the meeting provides an early forum for serious examination of emerging methods and approaches in this rapidly changing field. Sample Chapter(s). Chapter 1: Beyond GAP Models: Reconstructing Alignments and Phylogenies Under Genomic-Scale Events (119 KB). Contents: Beyond Gap Models: Reconstructing Alignments and Phylogenies Under Genomic-Scale Events; Computational Challenges in the Study of Small Regulatory RNAs; Computational Tools for Next-Generation Sequencing Applications; Knowledge-Driven Analysis and Data Integration for High-Throughput Biological Data; Molecular Bioinformatics for Disease: Protein Interactions and Phenomics; Multiscale Modeling and Simulation Session: From Molecules to Cells to Organisms?; Protein-Nucleic Acid Interactions: Integrating Structure, Sequence, and Function; Tiling Microarray Data Analysis Methods and Algorithms; Translating Biology: Text Mining Tools That Work. Readership: Academia and industry in the fields of biocomputing, bioinformatics and computational biology.