Automated X-ray fragment and ligand screening for therapeutic innovation in infection biology

Fundamental knowledge in infection biology accumulates at an incredible pace, revealing new molecular targets that play key roles in infection, replication, and pathogen metabolism as well as essential host factors.  These represent new opportunities for the development of novel anti-infective strategies. However, translation of fundamental discoveries into therapeutic applications has traditionally been hindered by a scarcity of approaches for thorough functional validation. 

Recent technological breakthroughs have made large-scale screening of small molecules against relevant targets by X-ray crystallography more accessible, helping accelerate the development of small molecule inhibitors through structure-based drug design.  This approach can now be applied by researchers on a large scale to investigate the function of molecular targets and establish proof of concept of their therapeutic potential. 

In this webinar, we will present new technologies developed at EMBL Grenoble enabling fully automated, large-scale fragment and ligand screening and their application to the study and validation of key targets with strong therapeutic potential in infection biology.

This event is part of the webinar series “Integrating structural biology and bioinformatics to study infection”. You can follow the link for more information about the series and its webinars.

Who is this course for?

This webinar is intended for anyone interested in infection biology, chemical biology, structural biology, and drug discovery.

Outcomes

By the end of this webinar, you will be able to:

• Describe how X-ray crystallography and structure-based drug design contribute to the development of small-molecule inhibitors.
• Explain the potential of automated, large-scale screening technologies in infection biology.
• Explain how fragment and ligand screening can support the functional validation of molecular targets.

This webinar, hosted on Zoom Webinar, is free to attend, but you need to register for a place beforehand, using the 'Register' button. Once registered, you will receive a confirmation email with a link to join the webinar.

The webinar will be recorded, and the recording will be made available on this page one day after the event. Please note that we do not issue certificates of attendance for our webinars. However, you will receive an email from our Zoom account confirming your participation a day after the event