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The Protein and Peptide Science GroupThe Protein and Peptide Science Group has set up an email discussion group. Click on the link to sign up for discussions and queries on topics related to protein and peptide science. The Protein and Peptide Science Group is both a special interest group of the Biochemical Society and a subject group of the Perkin division of the Royal Society of Chemistry. It neatly straddles the two disciplines, and as such is able to make a unique contribution to furthering its special interests. With a historic basis in peptide chemistry, the interests of the Group has enlarged in recent years to cover protein structure determination, structure prediction, molecular modelling and dynamics, protein separation and characterisation, protein biosynthesis, protein expression, combinatorial synthesis, protein design and engineering, drug-protein interactions and protein structure-function. The Group is also committed to paving the way forward into functional genomics and bioinformatics. The Group�s mission is to maintain the logical progression of molecular science through chemistry into biochemistry, biology and medicine. Thus, it has an interdisciplinary approach, representing the protein science interests of chemists, molecular biologists, structural biologists, peptide chemists and biologists and members of the biotechnology, food and pharmaceutical industries. The Group fosters the science mainly through the encouragement and sponsorship of meetings. Many of these are held at Biochemical Society symposia, but the Group has an impressive record in organising and supporting independent meetings. Examples of recent Biochemical Society colloquia include "Suspect Proteins in Neurodegeneration" and "Proteomics". Meetings to come will cover "Collagen" at Leeds in April, 2000, and "Modelling Biomolecular Mechanisms", a joint meeting with the Molecular Graphics Society in York. Techniques-based independent one-day meetings on, for example, mass spectrometry and phage expression, have been organized in the past in London and Leicester. The Group has traditionally held a bi-annual spring meeting in Gregynog in central Wales; the last highly successful meeting held there was on "Ion Channels" in 1998. Next in the series will be an international meeting in the spring (April 17th � 20th) of 2000 at the more accessible location of Oxford, on the subject of "Protease Inhibitors and Activators, Strategic Targets for Therapeutic Intervention", a subject area that will appeal a broad cross-section of academic, medical and pharmaceutical researchers. The group continues to work with Mayflower Worldwide Ltd in co-sponsoring international meetings on combinatorial chemistry and solid-phase synthesis. The year 2000 heralds parallel meetings at Imperial College, entitled "Protein 2000" and "Combinatorial Chemistry 2000". The Group was fortunate in winning an award from the Angela and Tony Fish bequest at the Royal Society of Chemistry which allows us to offer awards for young investigators for research presentations at our meetings. The Group actively promotes Protein and Peptide Science wherever it can, and has made important contributions to the Foresight Programme. More can be learned at web sites: If readers of this article have a wholly or partly developed idea for conference colloquia about new or unsung areas of peptide/protein science, or would simply like advice on how to go about organising and funding such meetings, the PPSG will be delighted to hear from you and to show you how to bring your idea to fruition. The PPSG is especially keen to assist early career academic and industrial researchers, whether chemists or biochemists by training, to bring their novel insights and requests for "know-how" before a wider audience of scientists with similar interests. By doing so, you may discover collaborative opportunities and obtain access to specialized techniques that will transform your research progress (the RSC and BS have a "reach" amongst UK peptide/protein researchers that is second to none). Joint ventures between chemists and biochemists are most welcome. It is an important function of the PPSG, implicit in the dual support it receives from the RSC and BS, to ensure that the traditional interdisciplinary boundary between chemistry and biochemistry is no obstacle to the progress of peptide and protein science. Informal contacts and suggestions may be made to the PPSG any time via the Group Secretary John Deadman. The membership of PPSG rotates regularly creating vacancies every year for experienced peptide/protein scientists who would wish to promote the subject at national level. You may either nominate yourself or a colleague. In either case, please send a brief c.v. to the Group Secretary. It is expected that applicants will be members of the BS or RSC, or will be prepared to join if elected to the PPSG."
 Click for larger image (478kb) Participants at a meeting on Protease Inhibitors and Activators - Strategic Targets for Therapeutic Intervention held at St. John's College, Oxford, 17-20 April 2000. The meeting was organized by the Protein and Peptide Science Group in collaboration with Mayflower Publishing. Co-chairs: John Deadman and Robin Leatherbarrow.
 Professor Brian Austen making the award of a cash Young Investigators' Prize to Shirley Gil Perado (Munich) for presentation of her work on calpain. Awards were also made to Jennifer Milner (Newcastle; pro-collagenase), Yeeman Ramtohul (Alberta; hepatitisA 3C inhibitors), Jennifer French (Wilmingtton; placental cathepsins) and Stefan Sperl (Martinsreid; uPA inhibitors). Forthcoming meetings:The PPSG are organizing the following meetings:
The Protein and Peptide Science Group (Perkin Division of the RSC and interest group of the Biochemical Society) is organizing a symposium on Tuesday 31 July and the morning of Wednesday 1 August at the International Convention Centre, Birmingham, UK, as part of the Annual Conference of the Royal Society of Chemistry More information and registration details can be found at http://www.rsc.org/lap/confs/ac2001/proteinrefolding.htm The formation of insoluble aggregates due to protein misfolding is a phenomenon associated with various human diseases, in vivo inclusion body formation and in vitro aggregation. Misfolding and aggregation of proteins during refolding continue to be a major problem in the production of therapeutic and other value-added proteins. There is a pressing need to understand the factors governing protein aggregation, develop improved methods to detect and monitor off pathway aggregation reactions and also to find methods for controlling or preventing these reactions. Elucidation of these aggregation pathways and of the roles of local amino acid sequences altering them is essential for optimizing protein folding and the recovery of correctly folded, biologically active molecules of the highest conformational homogeneity. Talks in the symposium will include:
Pilot Biochemical Society Meeting at University of York
A related session (organized by the Molecular Enzymology
group) will also occur
Other future conferences include Biochemical Society meeting at Heriot Watt 7 - 9 April 2002
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