Announcements, Conferences, Meetings

Announcing “Computational Drug Design: A Tribute to Frank Blaney”

June 17-19 2020, The Queen’s University, Belfast, U.K.

https://frank-blaney-mgms-conference.weebly.com/

The MGMS is pleased to announce our scientific meeting to honor the life and work of Dr Frank Blaney, a well-known computational chemist who worked for many years in the pharmaceutical industry. Frank was a pioneer within the world of molecular modelling, particularly with respect to Drug Discovery. Not only did he contribute greatly to promoting science within academia but also in advancing commercial sectors for Drug Discovery.  Frank was actively involved in the development of approaches to model membrane bound proteins such as GPCRs, ion channels and transporters, and the application of these approaches in drug discovery. Frank was a founding member of the Molecular Graphics and Modelling Society (MGMS), and over the years worked in a number of academic and commercial institutions including Oxford University, Queen’s University Belfast, as well as Beecham Pharmaceuticals, GSK and Heptares.

The intention of the organizers has been to assemble a world class group of scientists who will discuss their work at the forefront of efforts to apply computers in solving a broad range of problems in the biological sciences. The meeting will address the following research areas:

Quantum Calculations in Biology
Computational Methods in Drug Discovery
Multi-Scale Simulations
Systems Biology


Invited Speakers:

Prof William L. Jorgensen (Yale University)
Prof Harel Weinstein (Cornell University)
​Prof Marta Filizola (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai)
Prof Jon Essex (University of Southampton)
​Prof Rebecca Wade (University of Heidelberg)
Prof Nigel Richards (University of Cardiff)
Prof Christopher Rowley (Memorial University of Newfoundland)
Prof Daan Geerke (Vrije University of Amsterdam)
​Dr Georgia McGaughey (Vertex)
Dr Dahlia Weiss (Nurix)
​Dr Kirstie Bennett (SoseiHeptares)

In the interests of collegiality and scientific interaction, the number of participants will be limited to approximately 150 — so register early for what promises to be a significant event in exploring the use of computational methods at the interface of chemistry and biology!

Scientific Committee:

Tim Clark
Colin Edge
W. Graham Richards
Michelle Sahai
Ben Tehan
Irina Tikhonova


https://frank-blaney-mgms-conference.weebly.com/