Speakers
Professor Lecomte has been honoured with the following distinctions:
2010Laureate of the Prize of the European Crystallographic Association Max Perutz Prize (http://www.ecanews.org/)
1997-2002President of the Association Française de Cristallographie (AFC)
2000-2003President of the European Crystallographic Association
2009-2011Member of the Executive Committee of the IUCr
2012-2014Vice President of the IUCr
Professor Lecomte's research areas of interest are: Advanced crystallography, Electron Density Analysis, Structural Science, Instrumentation, Ultra high resolution Biocrystallography, Molecular Magnetic Materials, Molecular Materials, Phase Transitions, Chemical Bonding, Bond and Intermolecular Interactions.
Title of talk: International Year of Crystallography: The IUCr-UNESCO projects
Opening Session, April 2nd, 13:30
Maria Ondina Figueiredo developed her main scientific work in the field of crystallography and crystal chemistry, specializing in techniques such as chemical characterization by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, structural analysis by X-ray Diffraction and X-ray absorption spectroscopies using synchrotron radiation, being in fact part of the commission for the integration of Portugal at the ESRF (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility). She is the author and co-author on more than 200 publications in national and international scientific magazines with revision in addition to numerous communications in conferences in various points of the globe, having been assigned jointly with José Lima-de-Faria the Gulbenkian Award for Science in 1976 (the first edition of that prize).
Title of talk: CRYSTALS: form, metrics, symmetry, atomistic in the perspective of materials
Opening Session, April 2nd, 13:30
Title of talk: Structural Biology Contribution to New Advances in Science. The Portuguese Case.
Opening Session, April 2nd, 13:30
Title of talk: Crystallography in the studies of art and historical artifacts
April 16, 12:00
Prof. Noam Adir, b. Israel 1957. B. Sc. in Chemistry 1984, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel.
Ph. D. in Biochemistry 1990, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel.
Postdoctoral research 1990-1995, Dept. of Physics, Univ. of California, San Diego, USA.
Joined the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in 1995.
Email: nadir@tx.technion.ac.il
Title of talk: Don't ever give up: unique solutions to unique problems in macromolecular crystallography
April 30, 12:00
Title of talk: The rock road of membrane proteins: from gene to structure
May 14, 12:00
Title of talk: Sistemas cristalográficos: 6, 7 ou infinitos?
June 18, 12:00
Title of talk: Beauty and Fitness for Purpose: the architecture of proteins, the building blocks of life
June 23, 15:00
Desenvolveu actividade de investigação na área da Química-Física, tendo sido coordenadora científica do GERQ - Grupo de Estrutura e Reactividade Química. Dirigiu o Boletim da Sociedade Portuguesa de Química e foi representante nacional da Commission on Chemical Kinetics da IUPAC. Foi membro de várias Comissões de Avaliação e de Direcção/Organização universitárias.
Para além da Química, a Epistemologia, a História da Ciência e a Divulgação Científica têm suscitado o seu interesse. Publicou centenas de artigos, vários livros e capítulos de livros, nas áreas mencionadas, e também alguns contos e romances.
Title of talk: "Dos Raios-X à Estrutura Biomolecular": uma perspectiva histórica
September 17, 12:00
-“Novartis-Preis” for therapy-related pharmacological research given by the German society of pharmacology and toxicology (in 2003);
-“Max-von-Laue-Preis” for structural biology given by the German Society of Crystallography (in 2005);
-“Horst-Bickel-Award” for the development of novel therapies in the field of inborn errors in metabolism given by Arbeitsgem. für Pediatrische Stoffwechselstörung (in 2009) and;
-Innovation Award of the State North Rhine Westphalia for the development of a therapy to treat Molybdenum Cofactor deficiency (in 2010).
Title of talk: Molybdenum Biochemistry: from neurodegeneration to synaptogenesis and blood pressure
October 1, 12:00
João is an all-round hands-on crystallographer with experience from gene-to-structure with more than 15 years of experience, including 7 years of industrial experience.
João did his Ph.D. in Structural Biology studying enzymes and metalloproteins at the New University of Lisbon with Prof. Maria João Romão and at the Max-Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Munich, working directly with Prof. Robert Huber (Nobel prize of chemistry in 1988 for the determination of the three dimensional structure of a photosynthetic reaction centre together with Hartmut Michel and Johann Deisenhofer). After his PhD, João did a postdoc at Merck-Serono, in Geneva working on the structural genomics pipeline, and solving the structure of complexes of human chemokines with novel chemokine binding proteins. Before joining Heptares, João was a research associate at Scripps, San Diego, where he determined the structure of a novel-neutralizing antibody in complex with the ebolavirus glycoprotein, elucidating the conformational epitope suitable as target for vaccines against ebolavirus.
João has more than 25 papers in peer-reviewed journals and contributed to 17 structures deposited in the Protein Databank.
Title of talk: Revolutionising GPCR crystallography and implications for structure-based drug discovery
October 8, 12:00
Currently, Sandra de Macedo Ribeiro leads the Protein Crystallography Group and coordinates the Molecular and Cellular Biology Unit of IBMC (Porto, Portugal), where she holds a position as researcher since 2006.
Title of talk: Ser or Leu? The structural basis of a genetic code alteration in Candida albicans
October 15, 12:00
She started her professional career at IST in 1980 as Demonstrator, Teaching Assistant (1983-89), Assistant Professor and Associate Professor with tenior (1995-2007). She is presently Associate Professor with habilitation. She has been a Fulbright and Humboldt grantee and a post- doctoral Fellow at the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt (1994- 95). She has been an invited researcher in different Universities in England, USA, Italy, and France. She has been involved on several Institutional assignments and University Management: She is presently Vice-President of the Scientific Board of IST since January 2007, and was IST delegate to CLUSTER (Leading Universities of Science and Technology), 2005-12. In 2004, she received a prize from the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, “Estímulo à Excelência” awarded to those scientists with high scientific productivity. She is member of diverse Scientific Societies and member of different International Commissions. She has coordinated different research Projects, published 5 Book Chapters with International distribution, 1 International Patent and has co-authored more than 200 papers in International Journals with peer review, and has presented more than 250 communications at International Conferences.
Title of talk: Unveiling a new world of pharmaceuticals and bioinspired frameworks
October 29, 12:00
Title of talk: Investigating Extreme States of Matter by X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy
November 12, 12:00
He got his Ph.D. in 1991 from the Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, U.K., under the supervision of J. Klinowski, and stayed for one year post-doc in the same group.
He has published some 440 papers (with over 10000 citations, h=50) and 3 patents, and gave over 100 talks at international conferences. Supervised 20 Ph.D. students and 27 post-doctoral workers.
His present research interests encompass light emitting lanthanide-bearing microporous and mesoporous materials, and Metal Organic Frameworks for sensing applications; nanosystems for multimodal (magnetic resonance, optical and thermometry) imaging and small molecules drug delivery; solid-state NMR and X-ray diffraction.
Title of talk: Materials and Crystallography: a personal travel guide
November 26, 12:00
Tom Blundell researches on molecular and structural biology of growth factors, receptor activation, signal transduction and DNA repair, important in cancer and other diseases. He has published 500 research papers, including 30 in Nature.
He was founding CEO of BBSRC 1991-1996 (Chair from 2009), Chairman of Royal Commission on Environment 1998-2005, Deputy Chair of Institute of Cancer Research since 2008 and President of UK Science Council since 2011.
He has written extensive software for structural bioinformatics and developed new approaches to structure-guided and fragment-based drug discovery. In 1999 he co-founded Astex Therapeutics, an oncology company that has eight drugs in clinical trials and that was sold in 2013 as Astex Pharma to Otsuka for $886 million.
In his academic lab he is focusing on the design of new antimicrobials for tuberculosis funded by FP7 MM4TB and Gates HIT-TB and targeting protein-protein interactions for cancer therapeutics.
Title of talk: Genomes, Crystallography and Drug Discovery: Fighting Resistance in Cancer and Tuberculosis
December 3, 12:00
Dr. Padeletti acquired her scientific competences in the field of surface and interface chemistry and physics of innovative materials with high technological impact. Her main expertise is in Materials Science, synthesis, growth and characterization of structural and functional properties of semiconductors, oxidic materials, nanostructured films, and nanoparticles in different matrices, for applications in fields such as Health, Sustainable Development and Cultural Heritage.
From 2006 to 2013 she was the Director of the Institute of Nanostructured Materials of CNR. At present, she is CNR Research Director.
She is author of more than 120 papers on scientific international journals and books, more than 160 presentations at international Conference, among them, many as invited speaker. She is Member of the Executive Committee of the European Materials Research Society (EMRS).
Title of talk: Significant findings on the Italian lustred majolica at Reinassance
June 11, 12:00
Brian Kobilka earned his M.D., cum laude, from Yale University School of Medicine and worked in research as a postdoctoral fellow under Robert Lefkowitz at Duke University, where he started work on cloning the β2-adrenergic receptor. He was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator from 1987-2003 and moved to Stanford in 1989. Professor Kobilka is best known for his research on the structure and activity of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs); in particular, work from Kobilka's laboratory determined the molecular structure of the β2-adrenergic receptor. GPCRs are important targets for pharmaceutical therapeutics, but notoriously difficult to work with in X-ray crystallography. The β2-adrenergic receptor structure was soon followed by the determination of the molecular structure of several other G-protein coupled receptors. Professor Kobilka is the 1994 recipient of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology. His GPCR structure work was, in part, supported by the 2004 Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. He received the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Robert Lefkowitz for his work on G protein-coupled receptors.
Title of talk: Structural insights into the dynamic process of G protein coupled receptor signaling
2015 June 5, 15:00
Promoted by
Institutional Support
1983/87:”Licenciatura” in Biochemistry, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal
1987/88: Research assistant at the Analytical section, Dept. of Chemistry, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal
1988/93: Awarded a Ph.D. degree at the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh,UK
1994/95: Post-doctoral Fellow with Prof. Robert Liddington at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Univ, Boston, USA.
1996/97: Post-doctoral Research Associate with Prof. Robert Liddington at the Biochemistry Dep, Univ of Leicester, UK
1997/2000: Post-doctoral Research Associate with Prof. Roderick MacKinnon at Rockefeller Univ, New York, USA.
2001-2006: Assistant professor at the Dep of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT
2007-2008: Associate Professor at the Dep of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT
2008- : Principal Investigator at the Instituto de Biological Molecular e Celular, Porto, Portugal
6 most recent publications:
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•Mari et al “Gating of the MlotiK1 potassium channel involves large rearrangements of the cyclic nucleotide-binding domains”.Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. (2011), 108:20802-7
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•Marques-Carvalho et al “Crystallization and preliminary X-ray crystallographic characterization of a cyclic nucleotide-binding homology domain from the mouse EAG potassium channel” Acta Crystallogr Sect F Struct Biol Cryst Commun. (2012), 68: 337-339
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•Harley et al “Changes in Channel Trafficking and Protein Stability Caused by LQT2 Mutations in the PAS Domain of the HERG Channel.” PLoS One (2012), 7(3):e32654.
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•Marques-Carvalho et al “Structural, biochemical and functional characterization of the cyclic nucleotide binding homology domain from the mouse EAG1 potassium channel” J Mol Biol. (2012), 423:34-46.
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•Adaixo et al “Structural properties of PAS domains from the KCNH potassium channels” PLoS One. (2013);8(3):e59265.
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•Vieira-Pires et al “The structure of the KtrAB potassium transporter” Nature (2013), 496:323-8
Title of talk: A molecular study of a component of the bacterial machinery involved in hyperosmotic adaptation
May 28, 12:00
Geologist, BS degree from University of Bahia, Brazil, 1964. MA from Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA, 1967. PhD from University of Lisbon, Portugal, 1988. “Aggregation” from Nova University, Portugal, 2001.
Professor at University of Bahia, Brazil, 1966, Lecturer at the University of Wisconsin, USA, 1969-70, Professor at University of Lisbon, 1982-96 and Nova University, 1996-2011, both in Portugal. At present, Associated Professor at Nova, retired.
As a non academic activity, geologist at Geological Surveys in Angola, 1970-73 and Brazil, 1975-1982 and Argo Petroleum in Angola, 1973-74.
Researcher at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA, 1967-1969 and at BPI Geophysical Laboratory at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa (summer 1990).
Areas of interest and activities: Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology and Geochemistry, Rock Alteration, Rocks in Monuments facing alteration due to aggressive environment. Mineral changes in the rock alteration processes.
Reorganization of the Geological Survey (DNPM) Minerals and Rocks Museum in Rio de Janeiro and Manaus, in Brazil, 1982.
Conferences and scientific publications related to the main research areas in several Scientific Journals. Publication in Portugal and Brazil of a book on a specific rock from Portugal, which was taken to Brazil during XVII and XVIII centuries: “OLIOZ PORTUGUÊS, De Lastro de Navio a Arte na Bahia”.
Title of talk: Cristais - um retrato dos elementos nas estruturas dos minerais
December 17, 12:00
Born in Jerusalem, Dr. Yonath earned her B.Sc (1962) and M.Sc. (1964) degrees at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1968, she completed her Ph.D. at the Weizmann Institute of Science. She continued postdoctoral studies at Carnegie Mellon University and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she first learned about protein crystallography. In 1970, she returned to the Weizmann Institute and established what was, for almost a decade, the only protein crystallography laboratory in Israel.
Dr. Ada Yonath is the pioneer of ribosome crystallography. She began this work in the late 1970s, long before most others thought it possible to crystallize such a large, irregular structure. In 1980, she created the first ribosome crystals from thermophilic and halophilic bacteria. Dr. Yonath was also a pioneer in the use of cryocrystallography--flash-freezing crystals--to minimize damage caused by intense X-rays. Dr. Yonath was the first to observe that the ribosome is riddled with internal channels and chambers, including a cavern that hosts translation and a tunnel that protects newly synthesized proteins. These findings remained controversial for nearly a decade until they were confirmed by cryo-electron microscopy.
Dr. Yonath also used controlled heating and an mRNA analog to trigger protein biosynthesis in ribosomal crystals. She then preserved the activated ribosomal crystals using various chemical compounds. In 2000, she published the 3.3 Angstrom structure of the small (30S) ribosomal subunit.
Among many other awards and honors, in 2009, she received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas A. Steitz for her studies on the structure and function of the ribosome, becoming the first Israeli woman to win the Nobel Prize out of ten Israeli Nobel laureates, the first woman from the Middle East to win a Nobel prize in the sciences, and the first woman in 45 years to win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
(adapted from http://www.nigms.nih.gov/News/meetings/stetten/pages/yonath.aspx)
Title of talk: Resistance to Antibiotics and Preserving the Microbiome
2015 February 4, 15:00