Visegrad Symposium on Biomolecular Interactions, Nove Hrady, Czech Republic

Topics:

• Computational simulations and spectroscopy of biologically relevant systems.
• Applications of various computational methods (bioinformatics, MD simulations, QM calculations) or spectroscopical/microscopical techniques in studies of complex biological systems
• Development of new computational approaches or new spectroscopical/microscopical techniques in biochemistry and biophysics

The Visegrad Symposium on Biomolecular Interactions. gathers researchers interested in the study of biomolecular systems with a wide array of scientific approaches. They range from computational methods, including quantum calculations and atomistic or coarse-grained simulations, to experimental, mainly spectroscopic techniques. As such the meeting is a unique platform for sharing ideas and approaching common scientific problems from different points of view, often leading to the establishment of fruitful, interdisciplinary collaboration.

The history of the meetings dates back to 2009 and 2010, when two „Mini-symposium on the computation of interactions in biological systems“ were organised by the research teams from Nove Hrady and Szeged in their respective towns. Later joined by partners from Bratislava and Kraków, and benefiting from the support of Visegrad International Fund, they established the tradition of annual Visegrad Symposium on structural systems biology, alternating between Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland. During the later years also partners from Warsaw and Miskolc joined our consortium. The 1st VSSSB was organized at 2011 in Nové Hrady, Czech Republic, followed by 2nd VSSSB at 2012 in Gyöngyöstarján, Hungary, 3rd VSSSB at 2013 in Smolenice, Slovakia, 4th VSSSB at 2014 in Nové Hrady, 5th VSSSB at 2015 in Szeged, Hungary, 6th VSSSB at 2016 in Warsaw, Poland, 7th VSSSB at 2017 in Nové Hrady, 8th VSSSB at 2018 in Lučenec, Slovakia and 9th VSSSB at 2019 in Szilvásvarád, Hungary. Due to the pandemics of COVID19 the 10th VSSSB originally destined in Nove Hrady had to be canceled and the pattern has been disrupted.

The conferences were very successful. In addition to the scientists from the partner institutions and their colleagues in Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, the conference also attracted many scientists from other countries like Austria, Germany, France, Great Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, Spain and Switzerland. The conferences were also attended by many students including the participants of the summer schools organized in Szeged (later in Miskolc) and Nové Hrady that are mainly undergraduate students from the USA, Canada and UK.

This year we would like to follow up the tradition of VSSSB, but due to organizational reason the meeting will be in the new scaled down format  called Visegrad Symposium on Biomolecular Interactions. The new format will be closer to the original „Mini-symposium on the computation of interactions in biological systems“ and the meeing will be held held back in Nove Hrady, Czech Republic. The conference will be organized by Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Nove Hrady and in collaboration with the partners from V4 countries. This year’s conference will mainly focus on various computational methods used in the study of biologically relevant macromolecules ranging from quantum calculations via atomistic models to coarse-grained molecular dynamics of biological systems. The other main topic will focus on experimental techniques, mainly spectroscopic methods that complement the simulations or can be used for verification. We hope that this year the conference will be as successful as its predecessors.

The organizing team