The Meeting on structure-based drug-design is an opportunity to create interest in using X-ray and neutron techniques to develop new drugs

In mid-November, the Structure-based Drug Design working group is inviting researchers to a meeting on structure-based drug design. The hope is 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.

Raminta Venskutonyte is Assistant researcher at Medical Structural Biology, Lund University.

– This meeting is for everyone with an interest in drug-discovery. It covers several areas of expertise so we hope to see a broad mix of people at the event. We have also opened up for researchers to contribute with talks to the programme, so as to make the two days collaborative and interesting for many people, says Raminta Venskutonyte, Assistant researcher at Medical Structural Biology, Lund University.

Aim to create a network on how to use X-rays and neutrons to progress the development of new drugs

Although the topic is of structure-based drug design is widely researched across the globe, there has not been so many such events gathering researchers in Lund says Raminta Venskutonyte. She is hoping that the event could see the establishment of a new network on how to use X-rays and neutrons to progress the development of new drugs.

– Especially fragment-based screening for drug discovery is an area that could greatly benefit of the use of X-ray techniques. High resolution of the atomic structure of the protein-compound complexes provides the needed information to further drug development.

Collaborative setting can benefit research

Raminta Venskutonyte’s own research is focused on X-ray crystallography of proteins for drug discovery. She is specially looking at how various compounds bind to proteins of medical interest.

– It is always interesting to discover on a molecular level how the compound interacts with the protein. Sometimes it can be a surprise, once you solve the protein structure, it can turn out to show something different than what was predicted by computational methods. That is why you need to always integrate different techniques to get closer to the goal of developing therapeutic drugs.

– I personally, feel that my research can benefit from meeting researchers from different fields. That is why I am looking forward to meeting in a collaborative and diverse setting. I also know that many others feel the same. That is one of the reasons we started our working group, and now hold this event, she concludes.

About the meeting on Structure-based Drug-design

The meeting is open to researchers from various areas within the topic, including structural biology, pharmacology, computational and medicinal chemistry. During the lunch-to-lunch meeting there will be several keynote talks, contributed talks and a poster session

Read more, submit your abstract and register - please note that the deadline for abstracts has been prolonged to 30th October.