The sixth Peptide Engineering Meeting PEM6

Abstract

Colleagues, The program for the sixth Peptide Engineering Meeting, PEM6, is shaping up nicely. All of the invited speakers have confirmed their participation and we are currently collecting abstracts from which short talks will be selected. The meeting will be held October 2nd through the 5th at Emory University Conference Center. This international workshop will address structure-based approaches to peptide design, peptide-protein interactions, peptide-membrane interactions, peptide bioactivity, and peptide-based materials. The theme of this years meeting is Learning from Nature to Engineer Peptides. Understanding the conformational principles of peptide and protein folding. Uncovering the physical underpinnings of peptide and protein self-association and its role in evolved physiological function and in disease-related aggregation. Mimicking Nature with novel amino acid and peptide chemistry. Engineering peptides based on the fundamental biophysical principles outlined by Nature for targeted applications in peptide-based therapy, cell and tissue targeting, drug delivery, modulators of cell phenotype and the design of novel materials, amongst others. This year's meeting begins with an opening keynote address by Laura Kiessling, from the University of Wisconsin and ends with a closing address by Padmanabhan Balaram, Director of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. In addition, lectures will be given by Annelise Barron (USA), Vincent Conticello (USA), Bill DeGrado (USA), Gilles Guichard (France), Sihyun Ham (Korea), Robert Hancock (Canada), Ada Kapurnioto (Germany), Chie Kojima (Japan), Beate Koksch (Germany), Takaki Koide (Japan), Hee-Seung Lee (Korea), Junko Ohkanda (Japan), Annalisa Pastore (England), Sheena Radford (England), Hanna Rapaport (Israel), Seiji Sakamoto (Japan), Joan Shea (USA), Margaret Sunde (Australia), Meritxell Teixido (Spain), and Bing Xu (USA). We are delighted that this meeting will have an honorary guest, Dr. Isabella Karle, whose long career in peptide science has led to seminal contributions. We will be saluting her 90th birthday! Please visit the website at (http://www.umass.edu/pem6) for more information. I look forward to welcoming all of you to Atlanta.