Molecular Interactions: New Frontiers for Computational Methods

Organisers:

Anna Tramontano (Rome)
Henriette Molinari (Verona)
Roberto Giacobazzi (Verona)
Alfonso Valencia (Madrid)

e-mail:c (anna.tramontano@uniroma1.it)

Background:

In the post-genomic era we can no longer limit ourselves to studying proteins and genes as isolated entities, but need to analyse their function in the context of cellular networks and pathways.

Following this line of reasoning, genomic information can be seen as the first catalogue of building blocks for the challenging task of understanding the functions of the genes and proteins within their situation in networks and pathways. Protein interactions are a first key step in this direction, and a basic component for addressing, in the future, more complex problems related to complex genetic regulatory mechanisms.

Proteins can interact between themselves or with other entities (substrates, cofactors, inhibitors) and the study of these interactions can be of two types:
a) If the structure of both interacting molecules is known, the main focus is on the physical basis of their interaction. The questions addressed are then related with the determination of the regions of interaction between proteins, and the reconstitution of the physical structure of the complexes. A special part of this problem is the binding of small molecules to proteins, which is particularly relevant for biochemical function and as the basis for rational drug-binding projects.
b) In the absence of well defined structures, the main lines of research are devoted to the determination of the interaction partners and components of macromolecular complexes.

In parallel with the experimental approaches, computational techniques are in continuous development for the prediction of the structure of protein - protein complexes and protein - drug complexes and more recently for the prediction of interaction partners using genomic information. This course plans to address all these three aspects of docking computational techniques from both the theoretical and practical points of view.
 

Venue: Verona, Italy

The University of Verona has great equipment for practicals (large room with up to 100 workstations and presentation facilities). Verona is a very interesting city, full of art and historical monuments. The meeting will be held in the Univeristy college which is located in the centre of town.

Dates: 20th - 25th July, 2002

Atendance: The course is directed towards people with some experience in computational techniques and/or in the usage of docking programs. We expect to accept about 24 participants. They will be selected by the Organising Committee on the basis of a short CV and a statement about scientific interests, submitted during registration. Participants will be encouraged to present a poster that they will discuss during the course and to submit a docking problem as possible topic for the practicals.

Training course web page: http://cassandra.bio.uniroma1.it/News

Faculty:

Programme:

Practicals... Practical sessions will mostly consist of hands-on use of software and servers. Participants will be asked to submit a problem they are interested in before the course.

Registration: click here for the registration page
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