Exploring the Frontiers of NMR, Computations and Complementary Biophysical Methods

The Gordon Research Conference on Computational Aspects of Biomolecular NMR provides a unique forum for the presentation and discussion of emerging methods at the intersection of experimental Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), computational methods and other complementary biophysical techniques.

NMR is one of the most versatile methods for the investigation of biomolecular systems, whether these are proteins, nucleic acids, glycans, membranes, or functioning cellular and in vivo systems. In the modern toolbox of researchers, NMR is one of the well-established methods, which, in combination with other complementary biophysical and computational methods, contributes to our understanding and diagnosis of disease, the development of therapeutics to combat disease and the engineering of novel or improved biomolecules with a wide range of applications in heath, food and materials. NMR can provide unique structural, dynamical and functional information to achieve these goals. Continuous advances are pushing back the frontiers of NMR in numerous application fields, enabling the study of systems of ever increasing complexity and/or in more natural, cellular environments. All these can, however, only be achieved by integrating new types of data and learning to use them in combination with other experimental information sources. Computational methods, whose importance for the field has been recognized by the awarding of the 2013 Nobel prize in chemistry, play here a key role in this integration process.

This GRC conference will bring together practitioners in NMR, computational structural biology and other complementary biophysical techniques for the purpose of generating new ideas and promoting collaborations in order to generate the next generation of integrative methods that will allow us to tackle ever more challenging systems.

The 2015 meeting, which will take place at the beautiful location of Il Ciocco in Toscane. It will have sessions devoted to advances in integrative structural biology, complementary biophysical techniques, frontiers in solid state NMR, signal processing, intrinsically disordered systems and interactions, ligand interactions and metabolomics, conformational variability and challenges in structure determination. Further, the importance of NMR for industry will be highlighted in a dedicated session. The prominent list of speakers, along with the small format of the conference, will provide unique opportunities for graduate students, postdocs, and those new to this research area, to discuss their research with leaders in the field. Extensive poster sessions, along with promoted talks, will facilitate this process.

A Gordon Research Seminar on "Molecular Simulation for the Interpretation of NMR Data" will precede the conference. Besides providing an excellent opportunity for graduate students and postdocs to become familiar with the atmosphere of a Gordon Conference, the Seminar will feature keynote talks from leaders in the field and speaking slots for a number of students and postdocs. Application for the Seminar and Conference are separate, and those interested should consult the Seminar description.