DINNER SHORT COURSE: TUESDAY, APRIL 26 (6:00pm-8:00pm)
Analyzing and Rationalizing Protein-Protein Interactions
Instructors:
Nels Thorsteinson, Scientific Services Manager, Biologics, Chemical Computing Group
Alain Ajamian, Ph.D., Director, Chemical Computing Group
The course covers tools in MOE for analyzing protein-protein interactions, such as molecular surfaces and non-bonded contact visualisation in 3D and using 2D interaction diagrams. Examples include calculating surface properties such as electrostatic hot-spots
or patches, as well as physicochemical properties. The effect of mutations such as residue scanning on protein-protein interactions is explored.
Instructors Biographies:
Nels Thorsteinson, Scientific Services Manager, Biologics, Chemical Computing Group
Nels Thorsteinson joined Chemical Computing Group (CCG) in 2008 as an Applications Scientist and is now a Scientific Services Manager and specializes in biologics applications. He is responsible for providing scientific support, programming custom applications,
instructing at workshops, presenting at conferences, and guiding CCG's 3D biologics modeling applications development. Before joining CCG, Nels majored in biomedical computing at Queen's University in Canada and went on to complete his graduate studies
at the University of British Columbia focusing on bioinformatics and computational chemistry.
Alain Ajamian, Ph.D., Director, Chemical Computing Group
Alain Ajamian joined CCG in January 2011, bringing more than 10 years of proven experience in pharmaceutical research and development. Prior to joining Chemical Computing Group, Alain served as Managing Director at BioChemia where he played an integral
role in establishing the North American operational business. Before this, Alain was a medicinal chemist at MethylGene, now Mirati Therapeutics, where he made significant contributions to the development of HDAC and HAT inhibitors and is an inventor
on several related patents.