Events

Organ-on-a-Chip is a hot topic and one of keen interest to many scientists working in translational sciences. Whilst the technology is still in its infancy, Organ-on-a-Chip is expected to deliver game changer solutions and progressively increase our capacity to gain greater insight into mechanisms of human disease, toxicity and early efficacy assessment of new therapies.

This conference was originally held in December 2019 and the speaker presentations are now available to watch on demand. These talks will review where the current state of the art is, where the bottle necks are and where the future directions lay. Join us online to benefit from hearing a candid and critical perspective on the technology by leading academics, end users, regulators and manufacturers, and determine if the technology is able to replace more conventional approaches and, if not, where the remaining gaps are.

Anyone from the scientific community who is either already working in the area of complex in vitro systems or who is interested in learning more is encouraged to attend this conference and explore this new, exciting and promising area of research.

The talks will be available from Monday 29 June until Sunday 19 July 2020. During this time, registrants will be able to submit questions for the speakers.

Time: 14:00 – 15:00 (BST)

Professor Maria Grazia Spillantini is the 2020 Thudichum Medal recipient, which is awarded to honour eminent scientists who have made outstanding contributions to neurochemistry and related subjects. Maria Grazia is Professor of Molecular Neurology in the Clinical School of the University of Cambridge and her work focusses on the molecular neuropathology of diseases characterised by tau and alpha-synuclein aggregates. With her collaborators, she identified alpha-synuclein as the major component of the filaments that form the Lewy bodies in Parkinson’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies, and described one of the first mutations in the Tau gene leading to frontotemporal dementia and Parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17. At this webinar, Maria Grazia will give her Thudichum Medal lecture, entitled Alpha-synuclein, a central player in neurodegenerative diseases, presenting her research into the causal involvement of alpha-synuclein in disease development.

This lecture will be chaired by Stefan Roberts, Professor of Cancer Biology at the
University of Bristol, and the Biochemical Society’s Honorary Meetings Secretary.

Time: 15:00 – 16:00 (BST)

Dr Sara Priego Moreno is one of the Biochemical Society’s 2020 Early Career Research Awards recipients. Her research has focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms that govern the poorly characterized termination stage of eukaryotic DNA replication. Using egg extracts from the African clawed frog Xenopus laevis to run in vitro DNA replication reactions, Sara was able to characterize for the first time the biochemistry underlying one of the most important events taking place during replication termination: Replisome disassembly upon replication forks convergence.

During this webinar, Sara will explain the current knowledge built from the last six years of research in regards to the mechanisms of CMG disassembly and their importance for the maintenance of genome integrity as well as emerging questions and future directions.

Join us for this lecture, chaired by Dr Martin Pool from the University of Manchester and the Biochemical Society’s Local Ambassador Representative.

R for Biochemists 101 aims to equip early career researchers with the information, tools and techniques to use R. It is suited to beginners that want to use the programming software but have little or no experience.

The course will focus on getting data in R, manipulating and visualizing them using various methods. Each module will use a biochemical experiment and data as a starting point.

The course is divided in 5 modules:

• Draw a protein standard curve using base R and ggplot2
• Extracting data from objects
• Drawing an enzyme kinetics plot
• Customizing and reusing plots with R
• Getting your data into R for exploration

The estimated time of completion for each module is one hour, however, participants will be able to learn at their own pace and will benefit from the interaction with the course lead educator and other fellow participants. Dr Paul Brennan will reply to your comments and queries for five weeks. After this time, you’ll be able to still access the course, but the interaction with the course leader won’t be available.

FREE for members

To communicate beyond the lab requires a different set of skills. In this online course ‘Introduction to Public Engagement and Science Policy’, we will explore how the molecular biosciences can contribute to UK policy, and share tools that can be used to engage the public effectively.

This course is ideal for early to late career bioscientists who wish to learn more about science policy and public engagement. Each module will be around 2 hours.

The course modules will cover:

• Introduction to science communication
• Science in policy-making – a guide to the UK landscape
• Public engagement activities
• Evaluation of impact

You will have access to the module for one year, and lead educators will reply to your comments in the first 6 weeks, so you’re encouraged to complete the course during this time.

An increase in the complexity and scale of biochemical data has created many opportunities for biochemists to exploit data visualisation, modelling and machine learning methods in knowledge discovery. Leveraging such power requires at least some coding which can be a daunting prospect for many biochemists.

The online course aims to support researchers at any career stage to learn the core skills which underlie the application of Python to complex, real-world research problems. ‘Practical Python for beginners: a Biochemist’s guide’ was developed by an experienced team of Python trainers and early career researchers with first-hand experience of learning Python for biochemical problems, based at the University of York.

The course is designed to take approximately 5 hours and is divided into small chunks that can be tackled at the learner’s own pace. Learners have the opportunity to interact with each other and the course trainers. No previous coding experience is required.

The successful learner will be able to:

• explain the rationale for scripting
• use the IPython command line as a calculator and to assign variables
• use the basic data types and some simple functions
• create lists and select elements from them
• explain what a library is, import a Python library and use functions it contains
• read biochemical data from a file into a Python
• understand computing concepts such as what is meant by the working directory, absolute and relative paths and be able to apply these concepts to data import
• analyse and visualise biochemical data using powerful Python packages such as NumPy, Pandas, Sklearn and Matplotlib

The purpose of this training event is to familiarise participants with approaches and computational programmes to generate 3D models of proteins where no structural data is available. Additionally, an introduction to molecular docking will be given. An emphasis will be placed on critically evaluating the usefulness of models and modelling in general for solving scientific problems.

This hands-on course is aimed at early career scientists, such as PhD students and PostDocs, and established scientists who are interested in applying computational approaches to their research in the fields of protein science, molecular health, medicinal chemistry and structural biology.

Mutations in Leucine-Rich Repeat Kinase 2 (LRRK2) are the most common genetic cause of Parkinson’s disease (PD), responsible for up to 2-3% of all PD cases in the UK and up to 40% in some populations. Coupled with its clear genetic links to PD, LRRK2’s status as a complex, multi-domain kinase has led to this protein being flagged as one of the most promising drug targets for Parkinson’s disease.

The field is witnessing major advances in our understanding of the function of LRRK2 and its role in human disease and is the focus for this year’s biennial scientific meeting on LRRK2.

The conference programme will explore the genetic forms of PD, the LRRK2 gene and the LRRK2 protein, as well as the basic LRRK2 signalling mechanisms and physiological and pathological functions of LRRK2. In addition, non-neuronal LRRK2 signalling, particularly with respect to neuroinflammation and the immune system in PD, will be covered, as well as the role of LRRK2 in non-PD conditions.

We are welcoming abstracts for both oral communications and poster presentations, from both industry and academia and across all career stages. The meeting will be of particular interest to those working in biochemistry, neuroscience, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.

From bacteria to eukaryotes, cells have evolved a remarkable battery of enzymes to deal with the mechanical and topological challenges presented by nucleic acid production, processing and maintenance. A clear view of the biology of the genetic material requires a molecular understanding of how these enzymes function. Such an understanding will enhance our ability to manipulate genome structure and gene expression.

The theme of this meeting revolves around the mechanisms of these enzymes, with particular emphasis on research that integrates structural, biochemical, biophysical and computational approaches. With recent technological advances in imaging (i.e., single-molecule and cryo-electron microscopies), we expect to witness a flourish of key biological systems to be characterised with unprecedented detail.

The meeting will cover many of the molecular mechanisms by which large macromolecular machines carry out a diverse range of nucleic acid processes including DNA replication and repair, gene transcription and regulation, RNA processing and splicing, translation, nucleic acids structures and chromatin structure and epigenetic mechanisms. The meeting will also explore new quantitative techniques as well as theoretical approaches.

Sponsored by

Collaborating societies

Translation is an essential highly conserved process which is required for the synthesis of proteins in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. This unique annual UK scientific meeting enable discussing the latest progress in this field and fostering collaborations between researchers.

This year’s meeting will cover a wide range of topics related to translation, including:

• mechanistic basis of regulation
• upstream signal transduction cascades
• genomic architecture
• ribosome structure and function
• structure of translation factors/complexes and regulatory factor
• genome-wide investigation of translation
• RNA/tRNA modifications and localisation

The conference is also an important forum for young researchers at PhD and postdoctoral levels, providing opportunities for to deliver oral and poster presentations to promote their research. As part of the programme, we will host a dedicated Early Career Researcher event to promote further networking amongst this group.

Ribosome profiling is still a relatively new technique. Although many people perform these types of experiments, there is still a small number of groups that have successfully published results and there are currently no standard analysis pipelines in the field.

This one-day workshop is aimed at PhD students and postdoctoral researchers and will provide an excellent training platform for scientists who are planning their ribosome profiling experiments, and those struggling with either wet lab or computational trouble shooting. It will offer a collaborative environment to share knowledge on many of the technical aspects of ribosome profiling, both practical and bioinformatic.

The course will combine short technical presentations with discussions and questions aimed to help both individuals planning or just starting experiments, and those that are in the middle of analysis and would like further support.

*Please note that delegates are required to bring their own laptops.

This three-day training event for early career researchers will focus on the function on biological membranes and on the biophysical techniques available to study their components in the context of biology and biotechnology. The event will comprise lectures, computer and laboratory-based practical sessions. Participants will leave the event with new knowledge and protocols that will allow them to use biophysical techniques for studying components of biological membranes in their research.

Topics include:

• High throughput membrane protein expression
• Solubilisation strategies
• Membrane protein purification
• Structural determination via circular dichroism, crystallography and EM
• Lipid nanoparticles and their analysis.
• Lipidomics via mass spectroscopy
• Biophysical analyses including NMR and neutron scattering.

This training event will be followed by the ‘European SMALP meeting 2020’.

The application of styrene-maleic acid (SMA) co-polymers to extract small discs of membrane, termed SMA lipid particles (SMALPs), has changed the established landscape of research in biological membranes. Membrane proteins play a vital role in cellular communication and the control of transport  across the membrane, making them key therapeutic targets for many human diseases. Their location within the membrane, tightly packed with so many different proteins and lipids has, until now, made them extremely challenging to study. By allowing membrane proteins to be purified and studied whilst maintaining their lipid environment, the SMALP methodology enables the study of membrane protein structure and function using techniques that were previously impractical.

New applications of SMALPs are rapidly emerging making membrane protein study more accessible and widespread. This meeting will explore the latest developments within the field, including novel polymers, techniques and targets, bringing together a wide range of researchers to share their findings.

Kinases and pseudokinases fulfil allosteric, scaffolding, molecular switch and decoy roles in cell signalling. The recent attention on pseudokinases has shone a light on under-appreciated non-catalytic functions that can be mediated by kinases, raising the prospect that novel and specific therapeutics could target these functions.

2021 marks the 30th anniversary of the publication of the first protein kinase structure (Knighton et al, Science 1991). Much of our understanding of these diverse proteins has emanated from this structure, providing an important context for this meeting and a milestone to be celebrated.

This topic is the theme of the 88th Harden Conference, an event series unique to the Biochemical Society, providing residential research conferences covering a specialist topic. These events are widely recognised for their emphasis on free and open discussion to encourage the exchange of the latest data and a critical discussion of the technical challenges that these developments face.