Principal organizer:
Professor Davor Juretić
Physics Department, Faculty of Science,
University of Split, Nikole Tesle 12, 21000 Split, Croatia
Phone: +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 the 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 such 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.

Sponsor logos:

prof. dr. Wilfred F. van Gunsteren

Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH, 8093 Zuerich, Switzerland

Computer simulation of the dynamics of biomolecular systems by the molecular dynamics technique yields the possibility of describing structure-energy-function relationships of molecular processes in terms of interactions at the atomic level. This is one of the reasons why computation based on molecular models is playing an increasingly important role in biology, biological chemistry, and biophysics. Since only a very limited number of properties of biomolecular systems is actually accessible to measurement by experimental means, computer simulation can complement experiment by providing not only averages, but also distributions and time series of any definable – observable or non-observable – quantity, for example conformational distributions or interactions between parts of molecular systems. Present day biomolecular modelling is limited in its application by four main problems: 1) the force-field problem, 2) the search (sampling) problem, 3) the ensemble (sampling) problem, and 4) the experimental problem. These problems, or rather challenges, will be discussed and in particular the pitfalls of comparing simulated with measured data will be illustrated using different examples. Perspectives will be outlined for pushing forward the limitations of computational modelling of biomolecular systems.
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 45 (2006) 4064 – 4092
Biochem. Soc. Trans. 36 (2008) 11-15
Curr. Opin. Struct. Biology 18 (2008) 149-153

www.igc.ethz.ch

Upoznavanje s principima reflektivne spektroskopije u identifikaciji svojstava i interpretaciji kompleksnih pojava u okolišu: praktična primjena terenskog spektroskopa u stvarnim uvjetima; integracija, obrada, i analiza prikupljenih rezultata provodene spektroskopske detekcije

split-workshop-flyer-2009-hrv2

26. srpnja – 1. kolovoza 2009. / July 26th – August 1st 2009

Poster “Ljetna tvornica znanosti”

Opis projekta:
Ljetna tvornica znanosti je znanstveno-edukacijski projekt namijenjen djecu i mlade, koji imaju želju kreativno provesti ljetne praznike proučavajući znanost kroz interakciju s drugom djecom i mladim znanstvenicima. Ove godine se po prvi put održavaju i radionice za srednjoškolce, tako da se osim osnovnoškolske djece u dobi od 10-15 godina mogu prijaviti i svi zainteresirani srednjoškolci. Ovakav tip radionice, prvi put je održan 2007. godine u Splitu u Mediteranskom institutu za istraživanje života, MedILS. Obuhvaćao je tridesetero djece osnovno-školskog uzrasta, čije nas je iznimno zadovoljstvo, motiviranost i sreća potaknulo da ovaj projekt organiziramo i nadalje.
Programi radionica Ljetne tvornice znanosti temelje se na dovođenje mladih u izravni kontakt sa znanstvenim problemom, te ga potiču, da u suradnji s grupom svojih vršnjaka i uz pomoć mentora stvori kreativno i originalno rješenje. Cilj nam je motiviranoj djeci dati mogućnost da kroz proces otkrivanja svijeta oko sebe postanu svjesni svojih intelektualnih sposobnosti.
Sudionici će biti podijeljeni u grupe po četvoro, te će pred njih biti postavljen određen problem, na koji bi oni zajedničkim snagama, u tjedan dana trebali pronaći rješenje. Svaka radionica će se zasnivati na određenom znanstvenom području, a vodit će je dva mentora. Područja koja će se pokriti radionicama uključuju područja ekologije, molekularne biologije, kemije, fizike, meteorologije i matematike.
Radionce će se održavati svaki dan od 9 do 16 sati uz kratke odmore i jednosatnu pauzu za ručak. Posljednji dan radionce, održat će se prezentacija postignutih rezultata pred roditeljima sudionika, mentorima i znanstvenicima MedILS-a.
Dodatne informacije o radionicama kao i njihove opise možete vidjeti na stranicama:

http://sites.google.com/site/summersciencefactory/2009

Mentori:
Sandra Kolundžija, apsolventica PMF-a u Zagrebu, smjer biologija
Srđana Grgurević, apsolventica PMF-a u Zagrebu, smjer biologija
Marina Hren, studentica 1. godine preddiplomskog studija PMF-a u Zagrebu, smjer biologija
Martina Curl, studentica 1. godine preddiplomskog studija PMF-a u Zagrebu, smjer biologija
Ivana Piližota, studentica 2. godine preddiplomskog studija PMF-a u Zagrebu, smjer matematika
Sunčan Stilinović, student 2. godine preddiplomskog studija PMF-a u Zagrebu, smjer matematika
Kristina Majsec, studentica 1. godine diplomskog studija PMF-a u Zagrebu, smjer biologija
Martina Gačar, studentica 2. godine preddiplomskog studija PMF-a u Zagrebu, smjer biologija
Petra Pušić, studentica 1. godine diplomskog studija PMF-a u Zagrebu, smjer biologija
Katarina Ćuk, apsolventica PMF-a u Zagrebu, smjer biologija
Sanja Soviček, studentica 1. godine preddiplomskog studija PMF-a u Zagrebu, smjer biologija
Ivana Šarić, studentica 1. godine preddiplomskog studija PMF-a u Zagrebu, smjer biologija
Ivana Brekalo, studentica 2. godine preddiplomskog studija PMF-a u Zagrebu, smjer kemija
Lana Šarić, studentica 1. godine preddiplomskog studija PMF-a u Zagrebu, smjer kemija
Damjan Jelić, student 3. godine preddiplomskog studija PMF-a u Zagrebu, smjer geofizika
Maja Bubalo, studentica 3. godine preddiplomskog studija PMF-a u Zagrebu, smjer geofizika
Josip Skoko, student 1. godine preddiplomskog studija PMF-a u Zagrebu, smjer biologija
Sandra Vitko, studentica 1. godine preddiplomskog studija PMF-a u Zagrebu, smjer biologija
Dijana Kreso, apsolventica PMF-a u Zagrebu, smjer matematika
Ante Ćustić, apsolvent PMF-a u Zagrebu, smjer matematika
Ana Juričić, studentica 2. godine preddiplomskog studija PMF-a u Zagrebu, smjer fizika
Lada Vukušić, studentica 2. godine preddiplomskog studija PMF-a u Zagrebu, smjer fizika

Kriteriji:
Za osnovnoškolske radionice prijaviti se mogu djeca starosti od 10 do 15 godina (od završenog 3. do 8. razreda osnovne škole), dok se za srednjoškolske radionice može prijaviti bilo koji srednjoškolac neovisno o razredu koji pohađa. Tražimo visoko motivirane sudionike koji su spremni tjedan dana provesti učeći, kroz zabavu i intenzivan rad, o svijetu koji ih okružuje. Od prijavnika se očekuje sposobnost rada u grupi, te aktivno sudjelovanje u rješavanju problema, raspravi i interakciji sa svojim vršnjacima.
Očekujemo da dijete ima osiguran smještaj u Splitu za vrijeme održavanja radionica, te da ga svaki dan dovede i odvede odgovorna osoba (Starija od 18 godina).
Sudionici prošle radionice imaju potpunu slobodu prijaviti se ponovno!
Naknada za sudjelovanje:
Pristupnina iznosi 400 kn (uključuje 1 obrok/danu radionice)

Formular za prijavu:
Dokumenti za prijavu uključuju ispunjenu prijavnicu i motivacijsko pismo. Molimo vas da navedenu dokumentaciju pošaljete na e-mail: ssf@medils.hr

ssf2009-formular-osnovna
ssf2009-formular-srednja

Po potrebi vršio bi se osobni intervju sa prijavnikom i/ili njegovim nastavnikom, o čemu ćete biti obaviješteni.
Rok prijave:
15. lipanj 2009.
Organizatori:
Ivan Novosel, student 1. godine diplomskog studija PMF-a u Splitu, smjer fizika

Boris Kablar, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Dalhousie University
School of Medicine
Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology
5850 College Street
Halifax, NS B3H 1X5
Canada

Since July 2000, the members of the Mouse Models of Human Diseases Laboratory have been able to study the role of muscle in the epigenetic shaping of developing tissues and organs employing an approach based on mouse mutagenesis and pathology. Muscle tissue is one of the four basic tissue types that the body is consisted of. There are three types of muscle tissue and we are interested in one of them, the skeletal or striated muscle. We can study the developmental role of muscle in the whole mouse embryo or fetus, because it is enough to knock out two myogenic regulatory factors (MRFs), Myf5 and MyoD, to obtain an embryo without any skeletal musculature. Obviously, such a fetus cannot survive after birth, but it is viable as long as it is in the womb.

Even though it is understandable that the muscle may have numerous functions during development, we think of muscle as either an executor of various movements or as a provider of neurotrophic factors. Therefore, I will concentrate on the description of two major research programs performed in this laboratory:

The first one, also known as developmental morphodynamics, deals with studies that examine the ability of muscle to provide mechanical cues for organogenesis. In this program, we are trying to understand mechanical control of tissue morphogenesis during development. In fact, the analysis of Myf5:MyoD compound nulls reveals that several organs have difficulties to fully develop in the absence of the musculature. Organs that depend on continuity between pre- and post-natal motility are: lung, retina, inner ear and some parts of the skeleton (e.g., mandible, clavicle, sternum and palate). Diseases or phenomena that are modeled in this research program include: pulmonary hypoplasia, motion vision, angular acceleration, cleft palate and sternum, temporomandibular and acromioclavicular joint agenesis.

The second research program is composed of experiments that test the neurotrophic hypothesis. In this program, we are trying to find out if there is a muscle-provided trigger of motor neuron death ultimately relevant to the motor neuron diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The main reason for this kind of thinking is the fact that a complete absence of lower and upper motor neurons, which is the pathological definition of ALS, is only achieved in the complete absence of the muscle.

Mutual embryonic inductive interactions between different tissue types and organs, between individual cell types belonging to the same or different lineages, and between various kinds of molecular players, are only some examples of the complex machinery that operates to connect genotype and phenotype. Our studies so far indicate that some aspects of this interplay can indeed be studied as proposed, confirming the role of skeletal muscle contractile and secretory activity in the epigenetic shaping of organs, tissues and cell fate choices. We will continue this analysis to gain more insight into the nature of the epigenetic events that lead into the emergent properties of a phenotype.

Registrations are now closed; The Summer School officially starts with an Welcome Apero on Sunday 03.05 from 18:00-21:00, at the MEDILS insitute; All registered participants will receive an certificate of attendance and a confirmation of payment of the course fees upon completion of the Summer School. No refunding is possible in the case of cancelation.

GEOSTAT 2009 Summer School
“Spatio-temporal data analysis with R + SAGA + Google Earth”

Location: Mediterranean Institute For Life Sciences (MEDILS), Split, Croatia
Period: 3 – 10 May 2009

The objective of the GEOSTAT Summer School is to promote use of open source tools for the analysis of spatio-temporal data.
The course aims at providing a balanced combination of theoretical and hands-on-software (R + open source GIS) training,
and includes a one-day workshop where each participant can present his/her case study and receive feedback.




















Course moderators:
Roger S. Bivand (Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration)
Tomislav Hengl (University of Amsterdam)
Olaf Conrad (University of Hamburg)

The MEDILS institute features fully equipped lecture and seminar rooms. Accommodation is available in-house (hotel complex on the upper floors) - comfortable two-bed rooms with private bathrooms. All rooms are fully air-conditioned and provide telephone and high-speed Internet access. Three meals per day (breakfast, lunch, dinner) and intermediate coffee/snacks are provided at the Institute. The institute also features sport facilities, and access to sea (beach).

Registration fees:
Single rooms*: 840 €
Shared rooms (2 beds): 680 €
*A limited number of single rooms is available. In the case of high interest for single rooms, the organizers will try to arrange an equivalent accommodation in the neighboring hotel.

The registration fees are ALL INCLUSIVE: they include workshop fees, accommodation at the institute (six nights), meals during the whole duration of the summer school (excluding Friday 8.05 dinner and Sunday 10.05 lunch), and costs of the Saturday 9.05 excursion to island Brac (Pustinja Blaca - old Monastery).

Current registrations:

Helena Bakić (Faculty of Agriculture Zagreb, Croatia), Peter Borchardt (University of Hamburg, Germany), Miguel Eduardo Gil Biraud (GMV Sistemas, Madrid, Spain),Marina Stenek (Institute for physical and regional planning of Dubrovnik-Neretva County, Dubrovnik, Croatia), Tomislav Malvic (INA-Industry of Oil, Development Dept., Zagreb, Croatia), Juan Corzo Delibes (GMV Sistemas, Madrid, Spain), Pilar Tugores Ferrà (Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Spain), Sara Kaplan (Iowa State University, USA), Harry Kim (UC Berkeley, USA), Catherine Linard (Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium), Jaime Ricardo Garcia Marquez (University of Bonn, Germany), Tom Oliver (Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, UK), Andreja Radovic (Institute of Ornithology, Croatia), Wesley Roberts (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, South Africa), Daniela Staničić (GEOdata d.o.o., Croatia), Els Verfaillie (Ghent University, Belgium), Ivan Vučić (Institute for Oceanography and Fisheries, Croatia) ; Clemens Eisank (University of Salzburg, Austria); Melita Perčec-Tadić (Meteorological and Hydrological Service of Croatia;

The course is limited to 25 participants. The candidates will be selected based on: (a) academic excellent; (b) thematic relevance to the topic of the course; (c) geographic location (more distant applications have advantage) and (d) time of application.

Sponzored by: GEOdata Ltd, Split

For all other information contact:

Tomislav Hengl, course coordinator
E-mail: T.Hengl@uva.nl
URL: http://spatial-analyst.net

Daniela Kruschel, Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zürich, Switzerland and MedILS, Split

Thursday, 05.02.2009., 4 pm, MedILS lecture hall

Group II introns, which are ribozymes originating from organellar genes of plants, fungi, lower eukaryotes and many bacteria, have the ability to self-splice out of the primary RNA transcript. In addition, they can reinsert themselves into RNA and DNA, and are therefore mobile genetic elements. Metal ions are thereby strictly required for folding and catalysis. These introns consist of a conserved set of six domains (D1-D6) which are defined by characteristic secondary structural elements. D1 is not only the largest of the six domains but in addition recognizes the intron through base-pairing of two regions in D1, the exon binding sites 1 and 2 (EBS1 and EBS2) with the two intron binding sites (IBS1 and IBS2) located at the end of the 5’-exon. In this study, we used NMR spectroscopy to investigate the structural and metal ion requirements on the formation of the 5’-splice site of the group II intron ai5γ located in the cox1 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The solution structure of the system comprising the hairpin with EBS1 located in the loop was solved in the absence and presence of IBS1. Bound to IBS1, EBS1 adopts a novel conformation, which is specifically stabilized by divalent metal ions. Our results provide an important basis for an understanding of the structure and function of the splice site at atomic resolution.