Meeting on Structure based Drug Design provided a good opportunity to build national networks

In mid-November, the Structure-based Drug Design working group, within the theme IPDD, invited researchers to a meeting on structure-based drug design. The ambition was to gather researchers working on different aspects of structure-based drug design and to build a network of researchers wishing to use X-ray and neutron techniques to develop new drugs. Around 40 people attended the two-day event.

Raminta Venskutonyte is Assistant researcher at Medical Structural Biology, Lund University, and working group leader.

– The general feeling was that people enjoyed the meeting. The atmosphere was nice and open. We had lots of interaction and discussions in the coffee break, says Raminta Venskutonyte, Assistant researcher at Medical Structural Biology, Lund University, and working group leader.

She reflects that most participants were from Swedish universities, and that the meeting provided a good opportunity to establish networks nationally.

– For example, I had no idea that there is a group of researchers working with structure-based drug design in Gothenburg. It is great that our groups have now established contact, especially since they focus on the computational aspects of drug design, which we do not. It was also good to inform people about LINXS, which is not so known to some researchers yet.

The programme was divided into four sessions and covered topics such as fragment-based drug discovery and potential drug compound binding mode studies using computational methods, PROTAC technology, structural studies of medically relevant membrane proteins using X-ray crystallography and cryoEM, which provide strategies for future drug development.

Next steps - a PhD course and follow up meeting

The next step for the Drug Design working group is to start planning for a follow-up meeting in 2024. Next time, the meeting will be organised in connection to an advanced PhD-course on drug design.

– Joining these two activities yield many positives. Many of our participating students said that they really enjoyed the opportunity to discuss their work with others, and we want to give people this chance again to meet with different researchers connected to their area of interest.

Raminta Venskutonyte also hopes to include future developments and aspects on drug design into next year’s programme. One such example is the use of artificial intelligence, a field that will continue to grow.

– So much is happening, and very fast too. We will include what is most relevant for our theme, and working group. But, of course, the schedule will only come together in the next few months, she concludes.