2014 eight students on Bachelor- or Master level got the Max-Kade Scholarship to participate in ongoing research projects between Vanderbilt University and the University of Leipzig. Hereby there short research and travel reports:
Date 08 – 19 December 2014 Venue Biotechnologisch-Biomedizinisches Zentrum (BBZ), Seminar room 1.1, Deutscher Platz 5, 04103 Leipzig Responsible scientists Prof. Dr. Jens Meiler (Vanderbilt University) Prof. Dr. Annette Beck-Sickinger (Leipzig University) Dr. Jonathan Sheehan (Vanderbilt University) Dr. Rene Meier (Leipzig University) Aims Teach theoretical and practical aspects of computational structural biology using the Rosetta software. Basics Biochemistry, amino acid structure, peptide bond, secondary structure, tertiary structure, small molecule binding, central dogma of molecular biology Contents Theoretical and practical aspects of protein sequence alignments, secondary structure prediction, comparative modeling, protein-protein and protein-ligand docking. Structure-based drug design, virtual screening. This course includes a laboratory sectio Methods Computational Algorithms Examination Final Written Exam
by Antje Brüser (postdoc at Leipzig University): I had the possibility to join Vanderbilt University from March 26th – July 11th 2014 as a visiting scholar to initiate a new project between our group (headed by Prof. Torsten Schöneberg) and the group of Prof. Larry Marnett. We focus in our lab on orphan G-protein coupled receptors (oGPCR) and the Marnett lab is working on COX inhibitors. Since years they have been interested in products of the COX-2 pathway and the identification of receptors which they bind to. In our new cooperation we have the knowledge and expertise to search and functional analysis of oGPCR. During my stay at the Marnett lab