Announcement

"Hands-on" Workshop on Computational Biophysics at Jülich, Germany

Hexameric Helicases Loading Onto mRNA

Single-particle cryo-electron microscopy is an emerging technique to determine structures of biological macromolecules, in particular large protein complexes. Cryo-EM has made tremendous technical advances in the past two years mainly due to the development of a new electron detector that allows for reconstructing density maps at resolutions below 4 Angstroms. This "resolution revolution" turned cryo-EM very quickly into a major technique for atomic structure determination of biomolecules. The cryo-EM community now needs to be trained in translating EM density maps into reliable atomic models.

This workshop will be presented by members of the Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and members of the Computational Structural Biology Group from Forschungszentrum Jülich.

The course will cover recent developments in cryo-EM guided modeling of macromolecular structures and offer participants practical experience in using these methods. Theory lectures (mornings) and hands-on tutorials (afternoons) will provide a comprehensive overview of methods for cryo-EM guided modeling implemented in DireX, NAMD/VMD, and Rosetta, which are currently the leading software for cryo-EM guided modeling. Relevant concepts and computational methods will be introduced, and multiple case studies will be presented to showcase how these methods can lead to scientific discovery. Specific topics will include: molecular dynamics simulation, de novo structure determination based on cryo-EM maps, deformable elastic networks, stereochemical validation of proteins and nucleic acids, improvement of low-resolution crystal structures, and quality checks of fitted structures.

The workshop is designed for students and researchers in computational and/or biophysical fields who seek to extend their research skills to include computational and theoretical expertise, as well as other researchers interested in theoretical and computational biophysics. Theory sessions in the morning will be followed by hands-on computer labs in the afternoon in which students will be able to set up and run simulations. Enrollment limited to 25 participants.