Membrane Protein Structural Dynamics Consortium

04/27/2015

The final program for the 2015 MPSDC Annual Meeting has now been released. We look forward to seeing everybody on Wednesday!

DAY 1: Wednesday, April 29th 8:00am-12:00pm | Mini-symposium: Computational Modeling 1:00pm-4:00pm | Workshop: Exploring the Interface Between Computation and Experiment 4:00pm-6:00pm | Round table: Membrane protein conformation & structural heterogeneity at the single molecule level

02/06/2015

The Membrane Protein Structural Dynamics 2015 Annual Meeting website is taking place on April 29 - May 1st this year. Please note that unlike last year’s Frontiers in Membrane Protein Dynamics conference, this annual meeting is open to Consortium participants and invited guests only.

The Membrane Protein Structural Dynamics (MPSDC) 2015 Annual Meeting website has been launched, and we are ready to receive registrations! Please note that unlike last year’s Frontiers in Membrane Protein Dynamics conference, this annual meeting is open to Consortium participants and invited guests…

10/29/2014

At next year’s meeting in Baltimore, MPSDC members will participate in a number of specialty symposia, workshops, and other events organized by the Biophysical society, including the prestigious National Lecture.

The Membrane Protein Structural Dynamics Consortium is always very well represented at the annual Biophysical Society meeting, with Consortium members actively involved at the leadership level, including Francisco Bezanilla‘s tenure as president from 2012 to 2014, as well as at the level of particip…

10/24/2014

One of the ongoing projects in the laboratory of Wonpil Im (University of Kansas and MPSDC team member) has been to contribute to the development of CHARMM-GUI and CHARMM-GUI modules, such as the Ligand Binder and the Membrane Builder. These tools help users generate a series of CHARMM inputs towards a specific purpose, like calculating a protein/ligand binding free energy or building a protein/membrane complex for molecular dynamics simulations. The Consortium’s Computational Modeling Core has provided partial support for the completion of such modules.

10/24/2014

Some great photos of Dr. Francisco Bezanilla, past president of the Biophysical Society and active participant in the Consortium.

06/02/2014

On May 7th, 8th, and 9th, the Membrane Protein Structural Dynamics Consortium (MPSDC) held its second Frontiers in Membrane Protein Structural Dynamics meeting at the Chicago Hilton Hotel. The meeting featured both Consortium members and external invitees, and consisted of eight scientific sessions, poster presentations (and mandatory one-minute Flash! Poster talks), as well as two keynote lectures by Robert Stroud (UCSF) and Klaus Schulten (UIUC). Prior to the conference, the MPSDC hosted several satellite events including a computational modeling workshop, a mini-symposium meeting concerning the latest advances in computational approaches, and a workshop on spectroscopy methodologies.

On May 7th, 8th, and 9th, the Membrane Protein Structural Dynamics Consortium (MPSDC) held its second Frontiers in Membrane Protein Structural Dynamics meeting at the Chicago Hilton Hotel. The meeting featured both Consortium members and external invitees, and consisted of eight scientific sessions,…

05/21/2014

n the coming days, we will be releasing media footage from the exciting Frontiers in Membrane Protein Structural Dynamics 2014 meeting held at the Hilton Hotel in Chicago from May 7th-9th.

As a first piece of footage, we can think of no better than keynote speaker Klaus Schulten (UIUC)’s fascinating atom-by-atom movie titled “Photosynthetic Membrane of Purple Bacteria – A Clockwork of Proteins and Processes“, now made available with Schulten’s narrative of the movie during the keynote lecture.

In the coming days, we will be releasing media footage from the exciting Frontiers in Membrane Protein Structural Dynamics 2014 meeting held at the Hilton Hotel in Chicago from May 7th-9th.

04/28/2014

We have created a fully automated webserver for the prediction of LBT insertions onto existing protein structures. The underlying method uses a coarse-grained backbone+Cβ representation of the protein and samples on the backbone dihedral angles. The method predicts the proper conformation of the LBT tag with respect to the parent protein in existing fusion crystal structures. On multiple membrane protein systems, the method’s prediction of feasibility of LBT insertion on various sites qualitatively agree with the experimental data. The method currently reports several metrics to assess the quality of LBT insertion in a specific site in a parent protein. We expect the method to serve as a useful computational tool for experimentalists by helping them select reasonable sites in a given parent protein where the LBT insertion will likely be successful.

We have created a fully automated webserver for the prediction of LBT insertions onto existing protein structures.

04/25/2014

Professor Klaus Schulten (Director of the Computational and Theoretical Biophysics Group at UIUC) phoned in with us from his native Germany to talk about his research interests, the state of the field, the Membrane Protein Structural Dynamics Consortium, and the keynote lecture that he will be giving at the conference.

Three weeks in advance of Frontiers in Membrane Protein Structural Dynamics 2014, Professor Klaus Schulten (Director of the Computational and Theoretical Biophysics Group at UIUC) phoned in with us from his native Germany to talk about his research interests, the state of the field, the Membrane Pro…

04/24/2014

In collaboration with Anatrace, we are delighted to announce travel and poster awards for student and postdoctoral fellows attending Frontiers in Membrane Protein Structural Dynamics 2014.

Four travel awards ($500) and two poster prizes will be decided on the basis of merit.

Anatrace is a privately owned business which specializes in the production of high-purity detergents, lipids, customs. Well regarded as top performers for membrane protein structural biology, Anatrace products are chosen for their uniquely pure molecules – and the exacting chemistry behind them.

Anatrace is a privately owned business which specializes in the production of high-purity detergents, lipids, customs. Well regarded as top performers for membrane protein structural biology, Anatrace products are chosen for their uniquely pure molecules – and the exacting chemistry behind them.

04/11/2014

The Membrane Protein Structural Dynamics Consortium (MPSDC) is hosting two workshops on computational modeling and simulation, and spectroscopy methods. These will take place at the University of Chicago campus prior to the conference. Both of these workshops are designed for young investigators to…