University of Kalyani/DBT Workshop on “Protein Folding” and “Molecular Modeling, Dynamics & Simulation” | 26th-30th November, 2012

DBT Sponsored National Workshop on “Protein Folding” and “Molecular Modeling, Dynamics & Simulation”

26th-30th November, 2012

Organised by

Bioinformatics Infrastructure Facility at Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics University of Kalyani,  Kalyani – 741235 West Bengal India

Sponsored by

Department of Biotechnology
Ministry of Science and Technology
Government of India

About the Workshop: Protein folding is a physical process by which chain of amino acids transforms themselves into functional three-dimensional structures, in a somewhat self guided manner; under direct influences of crowded cellular milieu. Amino acids interact with each other to find its lowest-energy structure by a process of trial and error and eventually enter the naturally selected “folding funnels” and regain its native state. However aggregation of misfolded proteins that escapes the cellular quality-control mechanisms often lead to a huge variety of unrelated diseases.

Protein folding is at least a six decade old problem, since the times of Pauling and Anfinsen. However, rules of protein folding remain elusive till date. The “protein folding” consists of three closely related puzzles: (a) Is there any folding code? (b) What is the folding mechanism? (c) Can we model protein folding? Once regarded as a grand challenge, protein folding has seen great progress in recent years. Modern science provides lots of techniques and algorithms to study protein folding both in vitro and in silico.

Recently knowledge-based methods for the in-silico prediction of protein structure reached a considerable success, in part due to the growing wealth of experimentally resolved protein structures. In the future these methods may further replace expensive structural biology experiments leading to the efficient exploitation of genomes in drug discovery. Physics-based methods for the de-novo prediction of the native state are instead still remains computationally expensive. However, the latter approaches have the major advantage of providing atomic-scale information on the dynamics of the folding process.

This workshop aims to explore the theoretical aspects & recent developments of protein folding along with few hands on initiatives.

Topics to be covered:

 Protein folding (both in vitro & in silico approaches)
 Molecular Modeling and Dynamics
 Simulation & its application

Eligibility: Faculty members from Universities and affiliated colleges, Scientists and Scholars from R & D Institutes, Professionals from Industries and Biotech companies, Post-Graduates and Under-Graduate Students with sound biology knowledge are welcomed to register for the workshop.

As the numbers of participants are limited to 20, selection will be done on the first come, first serve basis.

Participant’s Presentation: Participants are encouraged for the oral presentation in various aspects of “Protein Folding” or “Molecular Simulation” on the workshop. The presentations would be in Microsoft power point format. Interested candidates may email their abstract (<500 words) along with the completed registration form on or before 19th November 2012. A maximum of TWO abstracts can be submitted by a single participant. Selected candidates will be informed through email by 21st November, 2012.

How to apply The duly filled Registration Form along with the requisite fee in the form of demand draft WITH SIX MONTH VALIDITY, in favor of “UNIVERSITY OF KALYANI”, payable at KALYANI, should reach the coordinator, BIF Facility at the Address for Communication by 19th November 2012.

Address for Communication

DR. ALPANA SEAL
Coordinator
Bioinformatics Infrastructure Facility (BIF)
Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics
University of Kalyani, Kalyani – 741235
PH: 033 2582 3405, 9830795655 (AS), 9432372734 (Suman Nandy), 8100830433 (Rajabrata Bhuyan)
E-mail: btis_ku@yahoo.co.in

Website: http://www.bifku.in/workshop/