THURSDAY, AUGUST 16 AND FRIDAY, AUGUST 17
Day One 8:00 am – 6:00 pm Day Two 8:00 am – 12:15 pm

FUNDAMENTALS OF PROTEINS AND PROTEIN SOLUTIONS

Description:

A simple energy framework is presented that allows a fundamental, but very practical, understanding of protein structure, folding, stability, interactions and solution behavior. The seminar focuses on the practical understanding and application of the energy framework, and not on its abstract, mathematical underpinnings. Building on a review of basic biochemistry and central energy concepts, the framework is used to build up a deeper understanding of how protein folding and structure arise from the properties of its constituent atoms and amino acids. This same energy framework is used to understand protein interactions with small molecules, surfaces, other proteins, and other macromolecules. The importance of cooperativity to biological processes is discussed, then described using the energy framework. The instruments and methods used to probe structure, folding, stability, interactions and cooperativity are described. The strengths and limitations of each method are discussed.

Instructor:

Thomas Laue, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Director, Biomolecular Interaction Technologies Center (BITC), University of New Hampshire

Agenda:

• Protein structure and energetics
• Protein folding and stability
• Protein-ligand interactions
• Protein-protein interactions
• Cooperative interactions
• Prediction of protein solution behavior from protein structure
• Proteins at high concentrations: Non-ideality
• Tools for detection and characterization of protein structure and interactions

Who Should Attend

Molecular interactions are central to protein discovery, development and formulation. This seminar is useful for senior scientists, protein chemists, structural chemists, technicians and post-docs who work with proteins. It will benefit anyone involved in the development or use of binding assays (e.g. ELISAs), anyone characterizing protein structure and stability and anyone focused on protein biological functions.

Benefits

• A single framework is developed to understand protein structure and function
• The framework is rigorous, but not daunting
• The course allows a wise choice of instruments and methods for characterizing protein structure, stability and function

Instructor Biography:

Thomas Laue, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Director, Biomolecular Interaction Technologies Center (BITC), University of New Hampshire

Tom Laue is the emeritus Carpenter Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Biomedical Sciences, and professor of Material Sciences at the University of New Hampshire. He is the Director emeritus of the Center to Advance Molecular Interaction Science and the Biomolecular Interaction Technologies Center. He received his bachelor’s degree in Natural Sciences from the Johns Hopkins University in 1971 and his Ph.D. in Biophysics and Biochemistry from the University of Connecticut in 1981. His post-doctoral studies were conducted at the University of Oklahoma. Between 1969 and 1975, he worked as a technician in the deep space program of NASA. He joined the University of New Hampshire in 1984 as an Assistant Professor, where he taught both undergraduate and graduate courses in biochemistry and biophysics. His research focused on the development of instrumentation and methods for examining macromolecular interactions. These instruments provide unique insights into these interactions, and resulted in extensive collaborations with both academic and industrial labs. Tom has over 120 publications, serves on several editorial boards, and gives over one hundred lectures, seminars and workshops a year.

Training Seminar Information:

Each CHI Training Seminar offers 1.5 days of instruction with start and stop times for each day shown above and on the Event-at-a-Glance published in the onsite Program & Event Guide. Training Seminars will include morning and afternoon refreshment breaks, as applicable, and lunch will be provided to all registered attendees on the full day of the class.

Each person registered specifically for the training seminar will be provided with a hard copy handbook for the seminar in which they are registered. A limited number of additional handbooks will be available for other delegates who wish to attend the seminar, but after these have been distributed, no additional books will be available.

Though CHI encourages track hopping between conference programs, we ask that Training Seminars not be disturbed once they have begun. In the interest of maintaining the highest quality learning environment for Training Seminar attendees, and because Seminars are conducted differently than conference programming, we ask that attendees commit to attending the entire program, and not engage in track hopping, as to not disturb the hands-on style instruction being offered to the other participants.