Dates
17-21 June 2019
Location
Bergen
Registration
Registration is closed
Course description
Would you like to expand your experimental vocabulary, cross borders into neighboring disciplines, or gain some experimental experience to compliment your computational skills?
To succeed, the biochemists, molecular biologists, computational biologists and organic- and medicinal chemists of tomorrow will need to possess a broader skill set than the one young researchers typically acquire along the path of their educations within each field.
Therefore, we invite PhD candidates and postdocs from the life sciences to take part in the Sandwich Course. During 1 week you will get hands-on experience with a blend of experimental techniques that pertain to several disciplines in the life sciences, and that are particularly relevant for drug discovery projects. We will teach you how to make peptides, how to biophysically evaluate their interaction with proteins or enzymes, as well as how to analyze and visualize these interactions with molecular modelling tools. In addition to learning by doing, using advanced instrumentation, you will be exposed to the theoretical backgrounds of these techniques.
What makes this course special, however, is not necessarily the nature of the experimental tasks themselves, but the context in which you will perform them; accompanied by colleagues from other areas of the life sciences than your own, you will get a chance to solve relevant tasks in teams with other young researchers with a variety of backgrounds, within a course context where we focus on how we can best communicate between disciplines and how we can develop transdisciplinary skills. Needless to say, the course is also an excellent opportunity to expand your academic network.
Last but not least, experienced researchers will visit the class and discuss their projects and how these evolve at the intersection of a multitude of disciplines and experimental techniques.
Topics
1 In-class topics
1.1 Communication across the disciplines in life science
1.2 Chemical synthesis of peptides
1.3 Analysis of peptides with NMR
1.4 Biophysical assays for the study of molecular interactions (incl. FRET)
1.5 Molecular modelling approaches to the study of molecular interactions
2 Laboratory work (wet/dry)
2.1 Synthesis of peptides using an automated peptide synthesizer
2.2 Purification of peptides using preparative HPLC
2.3 FRET-based measurement of enzymatic peptide cleavage and its inhibition
2.4 Hands-on computational session: Visualization of protein-ligand interactions
Practical information
The course will be given in English. The maximum number of participants is 15. The course material will consist of book chapters and/or research articles to be read before the course starts. The students will also prepare a presentation of 5 - 10 min to be held the first day of the course.
More detailed course information and schedule will be given to participants after signing up.
Evaluation
Participation all 5 days is mandatory. A passing grade in the course, based on the presentation (20%) and on scores in daily questionnaires (80%), gives 2 ECTS credits.
Application procedures
If you apply close to the deadline 10th of June (later than 31st of May), please contact the course coordinators. They can also provide further information about the course.
Course coordinators
Christoph Bauer (Ph.D.) - christoph.bauer@uib.no
Fahimeh Khorsand (Ph.D.) - fahimeh.khorsand@uib.no
Zeeshan Muhammad (Ph.D.) - muhammad.zeeshan@uib.no
Åsmund Kaupang (Ph.D.) - asmund.kaupang@uib.no