VU/LU Short Course in Peptide Therapeutics Available
Through our long-standing partnership with the Max Kade Foundation, a short course titled “Current Developments in Experimental and Computational Engineering of Peptide Therapeutics” is being offered at Vanderbilt University this winter. It will be taught in person from February 27th through March 3rd at the times noted below. Faculty from Leipzig and Vanderbilt Universities will teach the course in lecture and computational laboratory settings. The course is open to faculty, staff, post-docs, and students and Vanderbilt and Leipzig Universities. This is non-credit, and enrollment is completed by emailing Carie Fortenberry at . Enrollment is limited due to lab space, and it is first come, first served.
Course Description:
Peptides as therapeutics are an emerging class of therapeutics modalities, due to their high binding affinities and specificities. Here we will discuss their characteristics as a therapeutic class and give an overview on recent and future developments. Furthermore, we highlight strategies for identification and optimization of peptide therapeutics. We will also cover emerging technologies for structure-based computational design of peptides using Rosetta. Specifically, we will train students in the theoretical background of computational techniques for Peptide design and provide hands-on training with respect to engineering peptides consisting of genetically encoded but also non-canonical amino acids.
Schedule of Lecture and Lab
| Date/Time (CST) | Program | |
| 2023-02-27 12-03pm | Introduction to peptide therapeutics – Christina Lamers (MRBIII 5131) | Lecture |
| 2023-02-28 12-1:30pm | Leveraging Nature’s Biosynthetic Machinery for Peptide Therapeutics – Allison Walker (MRBIII 5131) | Lecture |
| 1:30-3pm | Recent developments in peptide therapeutics – Annette Beck-Sickinger (MRBIII 5131) | Lecture |
| 2023-03-01 08-11am | Computer setup • introduction to the Linux command line • shells • Linux filesystem • text editors • data processing tools • visualization of protein structures • Pymol and Chimera – Jarrod Smith (Stevenson Center Room 5119) | Lab |
| 12-1:30pm | VICB Seminar – Christina Lamers (MRBIII 1220) | Lecture |
| 1:30-3pm | Computational engineering of peptides with Rosetta Jens Meiler (MRBIII 5131) | Lecture |
| 2023-03-02 08-11am | Computer-aided design of peptides with canonical amino acids – Rocco Moretti (Stevenson Center 5119) | Lab |
| 2023-03-03 08-11am | Computer-aided design of peptides with non-canonical amino acids – Ben Brown (Stevenson Center 5119) | Lab |