Subject: COMPUTATIONAL STUDIES ON THE DESIGN OF PROTEASE INHIBITORS

From: [email-masked] (C. Nick Hodge)
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 1995 22:26:24 -0500

[Please disregard previous message; it had the wrong subject]

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*                                                               *
*   Call For Papers, Abstracts and Demonstrations               *
*                                                               *
* COMPUTATIONAL STUDIES ON THE DESIGN OF PROTEASE INHIBITORS    *
*                                                               *
*     Minitrack for the Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing       *
*                                                               *
*       Kohala Coast, Island of Hawaii                          *
*                                                               *
*           January 3-6, 1996.                                  *
*                                                               *
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Regulation of protease function has become an important strategy in
combating human disease, due in part to the ubiquity of protease
enzymes, but also because they are vulnerable to specific and
selective inhibition by relatively small molecules. There has been
an enormous increase in structural and activity data on proteases
and their inhibitors over the past several years. Evaluation of
similarities as well as differences in these systems allows us to
identify emerging trends and develop design strategies. An
increasing number of designed protease inhibitors are currently in
clinical and preclinical development, so now is also a good time to
assess the impact of computational approaches to studying these
biological systems on the efficiency of the drug discovery process.

This track will highlight the development and application of
computational tools for the discovery of inhibitors of clinically
relevant proteases within and across enzyme classes. Scientists who
have made significant contributions to research on ligand-protease
docking, dynamics simulations of ligand binding, the effects of
entropy, solvation or long-range electrostatics on binding,
prediction of binding modes and affinities, de novo design or
related areas are encouraged to submit abstracts or full papers.
Preference will be given to laboratories with experience in more
than one class of protease target, since a major aim of the track
is to compare and contrast strategies and structural features across
classes.

Note that original, unpublished research is required for this
symposium.

Details on the symposium can be found in the general announcement,
attached. If you are interested in submitting a paper or abstract for
this session, please contact:

C. Nick Hodge
Head, Computer-Aided Drug Design
DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Company
PO Box 80353
Wilmington, DE 19880-0353
[email-masked]
               +1 (302) 695-3698
               +1 (302) 695-2813 (fax)

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The first Pacific Symposium on Biocompting (PSB), will be held January 3-6,
1996 in Hawaii.  PSB will bring together top researchers from North
America, the Asian Pacific nations, Europe and around the world to exchange
research results and address open issues in all aspects of computational
biology.  Replacing and extending the last three years of Biotechnology
Computing Tracks at the Hawaiian International Conference on System
Sciences, PSB will provide a forum for the presentation of work in
databases, algorithms, interfaces, visualization, modelling and other
computational  methods, as applied to biological problems, with emphasis on
applications in data-rich areas of molecular biology.  In addition, PSB
intends to attract a more balanced combination of computer scientists and
biologists by reducing some of the barriers to the attendence of biologists
reported by HICSS participants.

To provide focus for the very broad area of biological computing, PSB is
organized into a series of tracks, minitracks and workshops.  The tracks
identify the focus research topics for the meeting; minitracks are
opportunities for presentation of work in emerging research areas; and
workshops provide forums for discussions of significant infrastructure and
other non-research issues.  In addition, PSB offers two invited keynote
talks, an general paper track, poster and demonstration sessions, and plenty
of opportunity for informal public discussion.

All paper submissions will be rigorously peer-reviewed, and accepted papers
will be published in an archival proceedings volume.  Paper publication is
required for oral presentation.  Researchers wishing to present their
research without official publication are encouraged to submit an abstract
for the poster or demonstration sessions.

Important dates:

   Expression of interest to session chair:     immediate
   Paper submissions due:                       July 27, 1995
   Notification of paper acceptance:            September 11, 1995
   Final paper deadline                         October 2, 1995
   Early registration deadline                  October 2, 1995

Each track, workshop and minitrack has a chair who is reponsible for
organizing that session.  Please contact the specific session chair relevant
to your interests for further information.

Tracks:

  * The Evolution of Biomolecular Structures and the Structure of
    Biomolecular Evolution.
      chairs:  Richard A. Goldstein & Russ B. Altman
      contact: [email-masked]
               +1 (313) 763-8013
               +1 (313) 747-4865 (fax)

  * Interactive Molecular Visualization
      chairs: Michael Teschner & Chris Henn
      contact: [email-masked]
               +41 (61) 641-0903
               +41 (61) 641-1201 (fax)

  * Stochastic Models, Formal Systems and Algorithmic Discovery for
    Genome Informatics
      chairs:  Tom Head, Takashi Yokomori, Katsumi Nitta & Kiyoshi Asai
      contact: [email-masked]
               +1 (607) 777-2278 or leave a message at +1 (607) 777-2147
               +1 (607) 777-2450 (fax)

  * Discovering, Learning, Analyzing and Predicting Protein Structure
      chairs: Richard H. Lathrop & A. Keith Dunker
      contact: [email-masked]
               +1 (509) 335-2430
               +1 (509) 335-9688 (fax)

Minitracks:

  * Population Modelling
      chairs: John Conery and Ross Kiester
      contact: [email-masked]
               +1 (503) 346-3973
               +1 (503) 346-5373 (fax)

  * Hybrid Quantum and Classical Mechanical Methods for Studying
Biopolymers
    in Solution
      chairs: Martin Field & Jiali Gao
      contact: [email-masked]
               +33 (76) 88-9594
               +33 (76) 88-5494 (fax)

  * Models of Control Systems in Biology
      chair: Seth Michelson
      contact: [email-masked]
               +1 (415) 354-7142
               +1 (415) 354-7554 (fax)

  * Computational Studies on the Design of Protease Inhibitors
      chair: C.N. Hodge
      contact: [email-masked]
               +1 (302) 695-3698
               +1 (302) 695-2813 (fax)

PSB Workshops provide opportunities for discussion about issues that are
significant to the computational biology community.  They will feature
presentations of current research as well as forums for other kinds of
communication.  Please contact the chairs for more information about
presentation requirements.

  * Internet Tools for Computational Biology
      chair: Reinhard Doelz
      contact: [email-masked]
               +41 (61) 267-2078
               +41 (61) 267-2247 (fax)

  * Biocomputing Education: Challenges and Opportunities
      chairs:  Susan J. Johns, Steven M. Thompson, & A. Keith Dunker
      contact: [email-masked]
               +1 (509) 335-0533 or 335-3179
               +1 (509) 335-9688 (fax)

For questions, or for information about submissions of papers, posters or
demonstrations that do not fit into any of the above sessions, contact the
conference co-chairs:

Dr. Teri Klein
Computer Graphics Laboratory
University of California, San Francisco
San Francisco, CA 94143-0446 USA
phone: +1 (415) 476-0663
fax: +1 (415) 502-1755
email: [email-masked]

or

Dr. Lawrence Hunter
Lister Hill Center
National Library of Medicine
Bldg. 38A, MS-54
8600 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20894 USA
phone: +1 (301) 496-9300
fax: +1 (301) 496-0673
email: [email-masked]

For registration and site information, contact the PSB conference
coordinator:

Sharon Surles
PSB Conference Coordinator
IS, Inc., Suite 203
5330 Carroll Canyon Rd
San Diego, CA 92121 USA
phone: +1 (619) 658-9782
fax: +1 (619) 658-9463
[email-masked]