U MedILS-u od 05.09. do 09.10.2010. udruga „Majka za dijete“ organizira međunarodni  znanstveni simpozij pod nazivom „Geni i autizam“ gdje će gostovati svjetski  poznati stručnjaci.

KONTAKT INFO:
Gordana Aljinović
e-mail: gordana.aljinovic@gmail.com
mob: 091/ 512-4137
Dubravka Štengl
e- mail: dubravka.stengl@tours.hr
mob: 098/ 213-407

Principal organizer:
Professor Davor Juretić
Physics Department, Faculty of Science,
University of Split, Nikole Tesle 12, 21000 Split, Croatia
Telephone: +385 21 385 133
Fax: +385 21 385 431
Email: juretic@pmfst.hr

Australian co-organizer:
Professor Frances Separovic
School of Chemistry, Bio21 Institute
University of Melbourne, VIC 3010 Australia
Phone: +61 3 8344 2447 or 6492
Fax: +61 3 9347 8189 or 5180
Email: fs@unimelb.edu.au

Note: the official workshop webpage is http://split4.pmfst.hr/konferencija/

The workshop will be held at the Mediterranean Institute for Life Sciences (MedILS) in Split, Croatia, 9-13 Aug 2010, and is organized by the University of Split, Faculty of Science, in participation with MedILS. Together with several other local institutions, the two have recently established an international PhD programme in biophysics at the University of Split. The workshop is an official summer school for the students in the programme, with additional wider participation. There are several groups in Split working on antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), and we have put together a program with lecturers primarily from Australia and Croatia. Croatia’s has strength in theoretical approaches to modelling structure, activity and selectivity of AMPs, while Australian expertise is
focused on isolation, synthesis and structure/activity measurements of AMPs. The workshop will bring together experimentalists and theoreticians interested in understanding the mechanism of action of AMPs and their possible applications as peptide antibiotics.

The workshop is not limited to Australian and Croatian researchers, but will be open to researchers and post-graduate students from other countries and has broad scope with respect to included research topics. This can be seen from preliminary list of invited researchers who have confirmed their participation and offered titles for their contributions as detailed in (6) below.

The participants include at least 7 senior scientists from each side, 4 Australian PhD students and 8 Croatian PhD students in biophysics or 26 confirmed participants and an additional 14 registrants to be accommodated, i.e., a total of 40 participants.

The participation of postdoctoral fellows and PhD students has been ensured on both sides so that tutorials on experimental and theoretical techniques will be an obligatory part of the workshop. The invited lecturers would each give 2 x 45 min lectures and a 45 min tutorial, plus a student poster session (2 hrs) and presentations by early career researchers (2 hrs), which would come to 4.5 days of formal program. In addition a free afternoon has been planned.

This one week workshop focused on a single topic will bring together an interdisciplinary group of researchers primarily from the two countries which would not only strengthen their biophysics programs but is more likely to lead to close and long term collaboration. The program will be evaluated through course questionnaires for both the students and the lecturers. Assessment of students will be on the basis of a short (5-10 min) oral presentation on their poster for which student prizes will be awarded.

The following invited speakers have agreed to participate; the subject of their presentations is also included:

Prof Mibel Aguilar, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Monash University: Membrane active peptides and peptidomimetics for drug development
Prof Vlasta Bonačić-Koutecky, Department of Chemistry, Humboldt University: Noble metal cluster chromophores: Absorption, enhancement and conformational control of peptides
Prof David Craik, Institute for Biomolecular Sciences, University of Queensland: NMR and protein structure in drug design
Prof Renato Gennaro, Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste: Structure/activity relationship and mode of action of Bac7, a Pro-rich antibacterial peptide
Prof Ante Graovac, Faculty of Science, University of Split and R. Bošković Institute, Applications of novel carbon nanostructures in biology and medicine
Prof Davor Juretić, Physics, University of Split: Design of novel peptide antibiotics
Prof Alan Mark, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, University of Queensland: Antimicrobial peptide insertion and assembly – insights from atomisticsimulations
Dr Lisa Martin, Chemistry, Monash University: Interfacial chemistry of antimicrobial peptides and model membranes
Prof Frances Separovic, Chemistry, University of Melbourne: Membrane activity of antimicrobial peptides
Dr David Smith, Centre for Computational Solutions in the Life Sciences, Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Molecular dynamics studies on natural and non-natural opioid peptides
Assoc Prof Damir Vukičević, Mathematics, University of Split: Algorithm for the design of novel highly-selective peptide antibiotics
Prof John Wade, Peptide Laboratory, Howard Florey Institute: Design and development of novel antibacterial peptides
Prof Irene Yarovsky, Applied Sciences, RMIT University: Molecular dynamics of peptide-surface interactions
Dr Bojan Žagrović, MedILS: Computational biophysics of macromolecules

The support of the Biophysical Society of USA, European Biophysics Societies’ Association, Australian Peptide Association, Australian Society for Biophysics and European Peptide Society is gratefully acknowledged.

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