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*The First African Structural Biology Conference*

*Macromolecular Structure, Health and Biotechnology in Developing Countries*

The Wilderness, Western Cape, South Africa
24-27 October 2006

The First African Structural Biology (FASB) conference will be held in The Wilderness, South Africa. Structural Biology is fundamental to rational drug design and central to the drug discovery process. The conference will focus on the contributions and potential contributions of Structural Biology to science in Africa with some emphasis on biotechnology and health.

In particular, the conference has the following aims:

  1. To promote structural biology in Africa, particularly in South Africa
2. To discuss contributions to the relief of disease, especially, TB, AIDS and malaria that have been made through an understanding of macromolecular structure 3. To provide the opportunity for South African students and scientists to meet and interact with some of the leading Structural Biologists in several fields that are relevant to our continent 4. To explore the merit and practicality of studying macromolecular structure in Africa 5. To discuss strategic and funding policies for structural biology and benchmark South Africa against other developing countries, notably Brazil and India 6. To identify projects of interest to the South African community in which structural analysis could play a role.

We are fortunate in having a number of speakers who have been successful in this area and who have applied their minds to the diseases of the developing world.

Expression of interest and registration forms can be submitted online by visiting our website:
http://sbio.uct.ac.za/conference

*PROGRAMME*


*Tuesday 24 October 2006*
2:00 pm Dr P Mjwara /(Department of Science and Technology, South Africa).
3:00 pm        Prof Sir Tom Blundell, FRS /(University of Cambridge, UK).
           Structural Biology and Modern Drug Discovery.
4:00 pm        Tea
4:20 pm        Prof Wieland Gevers/ (ASSAf, South Africa)
           Introduction of ASSAf Speaker Joachim Frank
4:30 pm ASSAf Lecture: Dr Joachim Frank /(Howard Hughes Medical Institute, USA).
           The Ribosome in Motion as seen by Cryo-EM.
5:30 pm        Prof Iain Campbell, FRS /(University of Oxford, UK).
           The role of NMR in structural biology and drug discovery.
6:30 pm        Dinner
7:30 pm        Poster Session


*Wednesday 25 October 2006*
8:00 am        Dr Gert Vriend /(University of Nijmegen, Holland).
           Protein Modelling.
9:00 am        Dr Steve Bryant/ (NCBI, USA).
Protein Classification Methods for NCBI's Conserved Domain Database.
10:00 am    Dr Frank Von Delft (/Structural Genomics Consortium, Oxford UK).
10:30 am    Tea
11:00 am    Prof Christian Sommerhoff /(University of Munich, Germany).
Parasite-derived Inhibitors of Mast Cell Proteases: Templates for Drug Development.
12:00 pm    Prof Ravi Archarya /(University of Bath, UK).
Structure based design of new ACE inhibitors through Cape Town (South Africa) - Bath (UK) link.
1:00 pm        Lunch
2:30 pm        Dr Rolf Boelens /(University Utrecht, Netherlands)
3:30 pm        Bruker Lecture: Dr Rudiger Weisemann /(Bruker, Germany)
           NMR Spectroscopic Studies of Protein/Ligand interactions.
4:00 pm        Tea
4:20 pm        Dr Pugh David /(University of Western Cape, South Africa)
Solution structure of the RING finger domain from the human RBBP6 splicing-associated protein.
4:40 pm        Contributed Papers
5:00 pm        Contributed Papers
6:30 pm        Dinner
7:30 pm        Posters


*Thursday 26 October 2006*
8:00 am        Prof James Sacchettini /(Texas A&M University, USA).
Combining Structural Genomics and Drug Discovery to Develop New TB Drugs.
9:00 am        Dr Peter Kwong/ (National Institute of Health, USA).
           Structural Biology and an Effective HIV-1 Vaccine
10:00 am    Dr Alan Roseman /(MRC LMB, Cambridge, UK).
10:30 am    Tea
11:00 am    Prof David Rice /(University of Sheffield, UK).
From drugs to herbicides: the impact of structural biology on rational design.
12:00 pm    Prof Krishna Murthy /(The University of Alabama, USA).
Insights into Function from Structural Studies on Complement Components and VCP
1:00 pm        Lunch
2:30 pm        Canoeing on the Wilderness Lagoon sponsored by Rigaku MSC
6:30 pm        Gala Dinner
7:30 pm        Posters
*Friday 27 October 2006(
8:00 am        Dr Jonathan Spencer /(University of Cambridge, UK).
           Structural studies on biosynthetic enzymes
9:00 am Prof Andreas Hoenger /(University of Colorado at Boulder, USA). Structural Investigations into the Interaction between Microtubules and Mal3p, an/ S.pombe/ Homologue of EB1.
10:00 am    Contributed papers
10:30 am    Tea
11:00 am    EMBO Lecture: Prof Helen Saibil, FRS /(University of London, UK)
One Sequence, Two Structures: protein conformational changes that cause disease.
12:00 pm    Prof Edward Egelman /(University of Virginia, USA).
           Order, Disorder and Heterogeneity in Helical Polymers.
1:00 pm        Lunch
2:30 pm        Prof Igor Polikarpov /(University of Sao Paulo, Brazil).
Structural Studies of HIV Proteases of Subtype B and F and their Mutants. 3:30 pm Prof Mamannamana Vijayan /(Indian Institute of Science, India). Structural biology of Mycobacterial Proteins the Indian Scenario.
4:00 pm        Tea
4:20 pm        Dr Michael Lawrence /(CSIRO,  Australia).
4:40 pm Dr Bethuel Sehlapelo /(Department of Science and Technology, South Africa).
5:00 pm        Discussion
6:30 pm        Dinner
7:30 pm        Posters


*Conference Organizer:*

Trevor Sewell
Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine
Wolfson Pavilion, Level 3
Faculty of Health Sciences
University of Cape Town
Anzio Road
Observatory, 7925
South Africa Tel.: +27-21-6502817
Fax: +27-21-6891528
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

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