EMBO Workshop in Bergen

Organizers at the Department of Biomedicine, UiB, Thomas Arnesen and Henriette Aksnes, along with Carmela Giglione (I2BC, Paris), Michael Knop (University of Heidelberg) and Hsueh-Chi Sherry Yen (Academia Sinica) welcome local, national and international participants to this very first EMBO Workshop on protein termini. Venue will be Radisson Blu Royal Hotel at Bryggen.

Here is a unique opportunity to learn about proteins, from their birth at the ribosome to their death via targeted protein degradation. There are many world-leading scientists joining us on this occasion. For example, Professor Bernd Bukau (University of Heidelberg) investigates how nascent polypeptides emerge from the ribosome and how they fold up to make functional proteins. On the opposite end of the life of a protein, Professor Alexander Varshavsky (Caltech) has pioneered the field of intracellular targeted protein degradation. 

The overarching theme of this workshop is the termini of proteins and their major roles in proteostasis and as biological regulators. The N-terminus of a protein is the first to encounter the cellular environment and represents the first opportunity for the cell to steer a protein. During protease action, neo N- and C-termini are generated and further opens up for terminal-directed regulation.

This conference will bring together scientists and students working on the co- and post-translational regulation of proteins, terminal protein modifications and modifying enzymes, and the impact of such terminal modifications at the protein level as well as in a broader biological perspective including human disease and plant homeostasis. The event will be relevant for researchers in the fields of structural biology, biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, systems biology and biomedicine, and encompass model systems and biological regulation in bacteria, yeast, mammals and plants.

The main objective will be to explore the molecular mechanisms, concepts and impact of protein regulation via its termini in order to generate new knowledge and synergistic research efforts.

Topics covered will include:

• Ribosomes and the nascent chain
• Structural biology of the ribosome, ribosome associated factors and enzymes acting on protein termini
• N-terminal and C-terminal protein modifications, including acetylation, myristoylation, formylation, methylation, and arginylation
• N-terminal methionine excision pathway
• N-degron and C-degron pathways of protein degradation
• Oxygen sensing in animals and plants
• Protein folding
• Drug targeting