NEWS

September 10 - 14, 2012: Modeling and Design of Molecular Materials, Wroclaw, Poland

Modeling and Design of Molecular Materials 2012 is the fifth conference in the MDMM series. Participation of experimentalists interested in application molecular modeling techniques is encouraged.
Planned sessions include:

• advances in computational methods
• modeling interactions in molecular materials
• rational drug design
• catalyst and biocatalyst design
• modeling molecular materials for nanotechnology
• modeling materials for molecular electronics
• modeling biomolecules
• workshop session devoted to grid and advanced computing techniques

More info: http://mdmm.pl/2012/
 

July 22 - 27, 2012:   26th International Carbohydrate Symposium (ICS2012), Madrid, Spain

The International Carbohydrate Symposium (ICS) is the most important event in carbohydrate chemistry and biochemistry, biennially organized under the auspices of the International Carbohydrate Organization (ICO), since the first meeting held in 1960 (Gif-sur-Yvette, France).
The symposium will cover all the branches of modern glycosciences, from basic to applied research. The symposium will take place in Madrid City centre (Hotel Melia Castilla), easily accessible from Barajas Airport by public transportation.

More info: http://www.ics2012madrid.com/
 

March 22 - 24, 2012: X Discussions in Structural Molecular Biology, Nove Hrady

Annual meeting of the Czech Society for Structural Biology.

More info: www.structbio.eu
 

November 9 - 14, 2011: Course: Modern Methods of Computational Chemical Genomics and Drug Design. Basic Principles and Success Stories.

The course will be given by Dr. Artem Cherkasov (University of British Columbia, Canada) with one lecture by Prof. Alexander Tropsha (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, U.S.A.). The course will overview the current state of the art of methods of computational chemicals genomics and cheminformatics and. Basic principle and algorithms currently used for computer-aided drug discovery will be reviewed. The entire drug discovery pipeline from 'drug target identification to pre-clinical drug optimization' will be discussed in details. Numerous examples taken from active drug discovery programs will be used to illustrate all components of the course. The practical component of the course will include basic tutorials on open-source modeling and drug discovery packages.

More info: ncbr.chemi.muni.cz/course_cherkasov_2011/
 

July 2011: Great success of our PhD student

PhD student Jří Nováček from NCBR was awarded the Ernst-Awards 2011.
 
For more information see the web site:
     http://www.gdch.de/strukturen/fg/nmr/fgmrernst.htm

 

March 10, 2011: Radio broadcast interview with Prof. Koca and Dr. Stefl

The Czech Radio broadcasted an interview with Prof. Jaroslav Koča and Dr. Richard Štefl about current reserach in NCBR. The interview was broadcasted on March 10, 2011, but the record of the interview is available (see link below).

Archive of the record (the interview is in Czech):
Radio broadcast interview with Prof. Koca and Dr. Stefl
 

January 24 - 27, 2011: Bio-NMR and EAST-NMR Annual User Meeting

The program will consist of lectures dedicated to highlights in the field or defining the state of the art in specific areas of joint research activities, users presentations, and of General Assembly and Users meetings of both projects complemented by the meeting of local operators. The program will also incorporate presentations of prominent representatives of other (non-NMR) state-of the art techniques (cryo-EM, X-ray crystallography), illustrating their respective approaches to solving challenging problems of structural biology.

More info: ncbr.chemi.muni.cz/aum2011/
 

November 1 - 4, 2010: Course on Biophysical Principles of Molecular Action

The course will be given by Prof. Ruben Abagyan (University of California, U.S.A.). This course has a goal of introducing the biophysical laws and principles of molecular structure and biological and chemical processes and methods related to both therapeutics and organic biological substrates and metabolites. These includes molecular action and chemical discovery, including pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics and pharmacogenomics and structural medicinal chemistry.

More info: ncbr.chemi.muni.cz/course_abagyan_2010/
 

October 4 - 8, 2010 - "One week of Structural Biology and Biomolecular Interactions in Brno" composed of:

• October 4 - 8: The Ph.D. course focused on advanced methods of structural biology to study biomolecular interactions. Tutored by Michael Sattler (Technical University, Munich, Germany), David Neuhaus (MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK), Tim Stevens and Wayne Boucher (University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK)
• October 6: The workshop "Frontiers in Structural Biology" focused on advanced methods of structural biology to study biomolecular interactions. Series of lectures will be given by excellent European scientists.
• October 7: Special lecture coorganized by the Czech Chemical Society. Speakers: Jürgen Plitzko (MPI Biochemistry, Martinsried, Germany) and Peter Roesky (University of Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany).

January 2010: Great success of our PhD students

Three of PhD students from NCBR obtained the scholarship for talented PhD students.
They were successful in hot competition of PhD students from four Universities in Brno.
 
Successful PhD students are:
     Fruzsina Hobor MSc.
     Mgr. Peter Holub
     Ing. Crina-Maria Ionescu
 
For more information see web sites:
     www.jcmm.cz/cz/doktorandi/vysledky-souteze/
     www.jcmm.cz/data/phd/BIO-MED-SCI.pdf
 

October 30 - November 13, 2009 - "Two weeks of LIFE SCIENCE life in Brno" composed of:

• October 30: RNA Club 2009 focused on prokaryotic and eukaryotic control of gene expression, including transcription, splicing, translation, noncoding RNAs, RNA degradation and much more.
• November 2 - 6: The Ph.D. course "Biomolecular interactions by experimental methods" focused on different aspects and advanced methods to study biomolecular interactions. Tutored by Hugues Lortat-Jacob (Institute of Structural Biology, Grenoble, France) and W. Bruce Turnbull (University of Leeds, Leeds, U.K.)
• November 4: The workshop "Biomolecular interactions by experimental methods" - a series of lectures will be given by excellent European scientist in the field will be held in historical space of Mendel Museum. Participants of the PhD course will automatically attend the workshop. This event will be open for whole scientific community.
• November 10 - 13: The Ph.D. course "Bioinformatics and systems biology" focused on protein and DNA sequences, protein structure prediction and analysis, complexity and nonlinear dynamics in biological systems, metabolic pathways and metabolic control, computational tools for systems biology. Tutored by Vladimir Likic (University of Melbourne, Australia).

June 25, 2009 - Jürgen M. Plitzko lecture "From cellular territories to molecular landscapes - strategies and developments in cryo-electron microscopy"

The lecture will be held on Wednesday, June 25 at 11am in building A3, lecture room 1.17.
 
More info: Plitzko_seminar_062009.pdf
 

June 10, 2009 - Mario Schubert lecture "Structure determination of protein-RNA complexes and glycoproteins"

The lecture will be held on Wednesday, June 10 at 11am in building A9, lecture room 316.
 
Abstract:
Structure of RsmE in complex with a mRNA fragment. RsmE is a member of the CsrA family of proteins found in bacteria. We studied RsmE from the soil beneficial Pseudomonas fluorescens. RsmE represses translation of hcnA mRNA which encodes for HCN synthetase.
Using segmental labeling of the glycan and the protein component by in vitro glycosylation, we developed a novel method of NMR structural determination of glycoproteins. Highly homogeneously glycosylated proteins in milligram amounts can be obtained. This allowed the determination of the structure of an N-linked glycoprotein from Campylobacter jejuni.

November 2 - 7, 2008 - The week of computational studies on biomolecular interactions composed of:

• November 3 - 7: The Ph.D. course focused on computational chemistry of biomolecular interactions, docking and simulations applied on biomacromolecules and complexes. Tutored by Johan Åqvist and Jonathan Essex.
• November 5: The workshop focused on interactions in biomolecules and on their dynamics studied at atomic level. Speakers: Johan Åqvist, Pablo Campomanes, Annick Dejaegere, Martin Field, Frank Jensen, André H. Juffer, Richard Lavery and F. Javier Luque.
• November 6: Special lecture coorganized by the Czech Chemical Society. Speakers: Rob Woods and Jonathan Essex.

February 1 - 2, 2008 - Meeting of the Coordination Action "NMR-Life":
Advances in Structural Studies of Large Protein-Nucleic Acid Complexes

The meeting is organized by Partners 3 (R. Boelens, Bijvoet Center, Utrecht) and 8 (V. Sklen��, Masaryk University, Brno) as an activity of the Coordination action "NMR-Life" funded by EU Framework 6. The meeting will be held on February 1-2, 2008, at the Conference Center of the Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
 
More info: www.ncbr.chemi.muni.cz/NMRLife2008/
 

October 18, 2007 - Shozeb Haider lecture "COMPUTATIONAL STUDIES OF THE KATP CHANNEL: IMPLICATIONS IN PERMANENT NEONATAL DIABETES MELLITUS"

A lecture is planned at Thursday, October 18th at 11am, A6 building, seminar room.
 
Abstract:
ATP-sensitive K+ (KATP) channels serve as metabolic sensors by coupling the energy metabolism of the cell to electrical activity of the plasma membrane. In pancreatic beta-cells, these channels link changes in blood glucose levels to changes in insulin secretion. The importance of KATP channels in insulin secretion is also highlighted by the fact that they serve as the target for the sulphonylurea drugs (SUs), used to treat type 2 diabetes, and that mutations in KATP channel genes can cause both hyperinsulinemia of infancy and its opposite, permanent neonatal diabetes mellitus (PNDM).
   Metabolic regulation of KATP channels results from changes in the intracellular concentration of the adenine nucleotides, ATP and MgADP. ATP inhibits the channel whereas MgADP activates it. In addition, KATP channels are regulated by phospholipids such as PIP2 and long chain acyl CoA esters (LC-CoAs), which increase channel activity by enhancing the open state stability and reducing the channel ATP sensitivity. Insight into how lipids and nucleotides interact with the channel is therefore of importance in understanding the regulation of KATP channel activity.
   Molecular modelling of the pore forming subunit (Kir6.2) suggests that there are 4 ATP-binding sites in the tetrameric channel, which lie at the interface between two subunits, with ATP interacting with residues from N-terminus of one subunit and the C-terminus of the adjacent subunit. The residues that form the putative ATP-binding site include those identified causes reduced ATP sensitivity when mutated. Additional mutagenesis studies based on the model predictions provided additional validation of the ATP-binding site. Naturally occurring mutations of residues in the predicted ATP-binding site were found to cause PNDM. The model provided new insights into how ATP binding might influence channel closure. These studies provide strong evidence that molecular modelling, in combination with functional validation, can provide novel information about Kir channel structure/function relationships. Furthermore, we have also identified the PIP2 binding site that is consistent with a large amount of functional data. We have also characterised the dynamic motion of the intracellular domains by molecular dynamics. Multiple simulations, over durations of 10ns, enabled us to study the behaviour of individual domains and propose a plausible hypothesis of channel gating. Simulations of KATP channel with ligands (ATP and PIP2) have provided detailed insights on how ligands modulate activity. Thus molecular models of KATP channel have proved to be a useful tool to study structural details in the absence of crystal structures.
 

May 31 - June 2, 2007 - Bioinformatics meeting

NCBR organizes the international meeting in Brno, Mendelianum.
More info: gmn.imp.ac.at
 

May 10, 2007 - Doug Turner lecture "Predicting RNA structure"

A lecture is planned at Thursday, May 10th at 11am, RECETOX building, room no. 409.
 
Abstract:
The databases of genome sequences provide a foundation for developing databases of RNA structures. Free energy minimization with a simple nearest neighbor model provides useful predictions of possible secondary structures for a given RNA. The accuracy of such predictions can be improved by incorporating restraints from sequence comparison, chemical mapping, and binding to oligonucleotides in microarrays.
It should also be possible to predict local three dimensional structures of RNAs. NMR structures of small internal loops in model systems, however, indicate that this is not simple. The results provide benchmarks for testing various computational approaches for predicting local three dimensional structure.
 

March 29 - 31, 2007 - Meeting "Setkani" in New Castle (Nove Hrady)

Numerous group of NCBR members participate at Nove Hrady meeting - see Web page. 4 lectures and 5 posters were presented here.
 

 

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