Rigidity, Flexibility, and Motion: Theory, Computation and Applications to Biomolecules (08w5104)

How a protein functions, and how to change this with drug treatment, has an essential connection how the protein holds its shape and changes its shape. The workshop focuses on mathematical and computational methods to predict and describe the flexibility, rigidity, and dynamics of proteins, or protein complexes, based on single snap shots as currently deposited in public data banks such as the protein data bank. The goal is rapid predictions to focus choices for further in depth analysis either with more more intensive (and slower) computational methods or in the laboratory. The methods can also eliminate options which are likely to fail so that experimental time is used efficiently.

This is an interdisciplinary effort, involving mathematicians, computer scientists, biophysicists and biochemists bringing together critical questions and innovative techniques to develop new methods and new applications. This workshop will take place at BIRS on July 6 - 11, 2008.

The Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery (BIRS) is a collaborative Canada-US-Mexico venture that provides an environment for creative interaction as well as the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and methods within the Mathematical Sciences, with related disciplines and with industry. The research station is located at The Banff Centre in Alberta and is supported by Canada's Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the US National Science Foundation (NSF), Alberta's Advanced Education and Technology, and Mexico's Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologí­a (CONACYT).