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Resonance in Biology

Collegio A Volta is a co-organiser and host to a major meeting entitled Resonance in Biology and devoted to a discussion of the biological applications of nuclear magneric resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The meeting will take place in the College lecture theatre on 13th (afternoon) and 14th September 2019 (all day).   The poster of the meeting can be found here.   Participation is free but all participants are requested to register for attendance at this link.

NMR spectroscopy constitutes a fundamental approach for the study of the structure and dynamics of biological molecules and has further applications in the study of metabolism amd drug discovery. The meeting will offer a comprehensive overview of recent advances across major areas of research (see programme below) and constitutes a special occasion for three major celebrations, namely: 

(i) the early and important contributions that the University of Pavia made to NMR spectroscopy through the work of Luigi Giulotto and Attilio Rigamonti. The latter will lecture at the meeting.

(ii) the lifelong and major contributions to NMR spectroscopy by Pierandrea Temussi, the Italian scientist who pioneered biological applications of NMR in Italy and actively contributes, to this day, to the theoretical and experimental development of NMR spectroscopy.

(iii) the recent arrival at Pavia of a high-field (700 MHz) NMR spectrometre, currently being installed at Centro Grandi Strumenti, an instrument that will enable scientists in Pavia to tackle a number of new research projects in the biomedical area, from structural and dynamic analysis of biological molecules to drug discovery.



 

Meeting Programme


Day 1 - 13th of September

14.00-14.15 Ermanno Gherardi (UniPv) Welcome and introduction
14.15-14.45 Attilio Rigamonti (UniPv) First NMR Steps Under Luigi Giulotto
14.45-15.30 Janez Plavec (Slovenian NMR center) Structural plasticity of G-rich DNA regions

15.30-15.45 Coffee/Tea break

15.45-16.15 Rita Puglisi (King’s College London) Joint use of nuclear magnetic resonance and native mass spectrometry in the investigation of protein interactions
16.15-16.45 Giovanna Musco (UniMi) Diflunisal targets the HMGB1/CXCL12 heterocomplex and blocks immune cell recruitment
16.45-17.15 Giorgio Colombo (UniPv) Dynamic disruption of protein interactions
17.15-17.45 Chiara Marabelli (UniPv) Molecular mechanism of nucleosome recognition by the histone demethylases

 

Day 2 - 14th of September

9.30-10.15 Sasi Conte (King’s College London) Insights into protein-RNA recognition from the La-related protein superfamily
10.15-10.45 Annamaria D’Ursi (UniSa) NMR screening of new potential inhibitors if farnesyl pyrophosphate synthase

10.45-11.00 Coffee/Tea break

11.00-11.30 Caterina Alfano (RiMed) Recombinant mussel protein Pvfp-5β: a potential tissue bioadhesive
11.30-12.00 Roberta Spadaccini (UniSannio) MNEI, a sweet protein for every season
12.00-12.30 Andrea Motta (CNR) Novel of the Phenotype
12.30-13.00 Neri Niccolai (UniSi) From PISA to PAVIA: an amazing bioinformatic journey (spiced with some NMR)

13.00-14.00 Lunch

14.00-14.45 Mario Piccioli (UniFi)
14.45-15.15 Orlando Crescenzi (UniNa)

15.15-15.30 Coffee/Tea break

15.30-16.00 Stefano Mammi (UniPd) Targeting the bcl-2 protein family:  a combined NMR and in-silico approach for fragment based drug discovery
16.00-16.30 Mariagrazia Pizza (GSK) New technologies and vaccines
16.30-17.00 Claudio Toniolo (UniPd) Personal Recollections From A Life-Long Scientific Journey With Pierandrea
17.00-17.10 Concluding Remarks