Annual Intensive Training Courses - Science & Technology
The network organizes four scientific and technological (S&T) Intensive Training Course (ITC), on topics relevant to the network activities, combining practical and methodological aspects of the different research areas (click on the figure below for the full size image).

Each ITC typically lasts 5 days. Each course starts with basic introductory lectures to clearly explain the underlying principles of the themes addressed. The course then addresses more specialized aspects. Lectures are mainly held by members of the scientific and technical staff of the network. Some external experts are invited when appropriate. The afternoon sessions are devoted to presentations by the ESRs and to practical or tutorial sessions with exercises, allowing plenty of time for questions and discussions.
The last day of the ITC is dedicated to a brainstorming session (morning) and to a round-table discussion (afternoon). Questionnaires are distributed at the end of each course to provide both trainers and trainees with a thorough assessment of the success of the ITC.
INTENSIVE TRAINING COURSE YEAR 2011 | |
Title | Bioinformatics and structural biology of IDPs |
Organizers | ENZIM, BIO |
Location |
Hotel Rubin (http://www.hotelrubin.com) Budapest, Hungary |
Brief abstract | Because the major theme of training of the entire network is to train researchers on theoretical, computational and structural aspects of IDPs, this first course is intended to provide an in-depth introduction and coverage of the field. day 1) general introduction, the history and theory of IDPs; day 2) databases and bioinformatics of IDPs; day 3) biophysical techniques for the structural characterization of IDPs, day 4) the interplay of structure and function of IDPs, and day 5) selected examples. We expect 3 lectures each day, one long (2 x 45 min) introductory talk and two 40-min lectures afterwards. In the afternoons, the program will run as follows: day 1) short presentations by ESRs of previous research; day 2) practical training, databases, bioinformatic tools, prediction of structural disorder; day 3) short presentations by ESRs of their CDPs, including discussion; day 4) practical training, evaluation of structural data on IDPs; day 5) round-table discussion with experts on the subject of IDPs, future directions of the field. |
Possible invited speakers | External: V. N. Uversky (University of South Florida, Tampa), T. Gibson (EMBL, Heidelberg), M. Babu (University of Cambridge, Cambridge), R. Loris (VIB, Brussel), Sonia Longhi (AFMB, Marseille) Internal: P. Tompa, A. Dinnyes |
YEAR II | |
Title | Advanced NMR methods |
Organizers | CERM, CNRS-IBS, Bruker AG |
Location | The course will be held on the Grenoble campus. All participants will be housed in small hotels in the Grenoble centre and the IBS auditorium will be used for lectures. |
Brief abstract | The course focuses on theoretical and practical aspects of modern multidimensional NMR spectroscopy. Emphasis is given to the particularities of IDPs such as the limited frequency resolution especially for protons, limited sensitivity due to low sample concentration, and the wide range of dynamics often observed for such proteins. In particular, the lectures will cover fast pulsing methods, projection and Hadamard spectroscopy, 13C-direct detection approaches, as well as the accurate quantitative measurements of RDCs, relaxation parameters, and PREs, and their interpretation in terms of conformational dynamics. |
Possible invited speakers | External: E. Kupce (UK), E. Lescop (Paris, F), S. Grzesiek (Basel, CH) Internal: B. Brutscher, M. Blackledge, D. Marion, M. Ringkjobing-Jensen, I. Felli (CERM), R. Pierattelli (CERM), R. Kümmerle (BrukerAG) |
YEAR III | |
Title | Advanced computing and SAXS |
Organizers | EMBL, UCAM, CNRS-IBS |
Location | The Course will be organized at the EMBL, Hamburg Outstation, on the premises of the synchrotron DESY in Hamburg. A lecture room for up to 50 participants plus two smaller seminar rooms for possible tutorials and a hall for a poster session are available. EMBL-HH offers convenient computing facilities including a high performance Linux cluster. |
Brief abstract | The objective is to familiarize the participants with novel developments on small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) for the structural analysis of biological macromolecules in solution, with particular focus on IDPs. SAXS provides overall structural information highly complementary to NMR, and the joint use of the two methods combined with modern computational approaches and bioinformatics is presented. |
Possible invited speakers | External: A.Bonvin (Utrecht University, NL), G.Kleywegt (EBI, Hinxton, UK), O.Byron (Glasgow University, UK), P.Bernado (Biomedicine Center, Barcelona, Spain) Internal: D.Svergun, M.Roessle, M.Petoukhov, D.Franke, P.Konarev, M.Blackledge (CNRS-IBS), C.Luchinat (CERM), M.Vendruscolo (UCAM) |
YEAR IV | |
Title | Advanced methods for the study of IDPs & overall results |
Organizers | CERM |
Location | Florence |
Brief abstract | The final event is upgraded to an international conference to give proper visibility to the scientific results obtained. 1-2 scientists per partner ESRs/ERs as well as international experts (5 +15) are going to present recent results and discuss about them both in an informal way as well as through round table discussions on the different aspects to draw general conclusions as well as to propose future directions. |
Possible invited speakers | External: about 15 scientists to be selected depending on the progress in the field in the lifetime of IDPbyNMR. Internal: 1-2 scientists per partner, ESRs, ERs ans VRs involved in the network. |