Proceedings of the 8th International Summer School of Biophysics: Supramolecular Structure and Function, held September 14-26, 2003, in Rovinj, Croatia

An enormous amount of new knowledge on the molecular basis of various biological phenomena has emerged in the rapidly expanding field of bioscience. Since the frontiers in scientific research are difficult to define‚ the creation of new knowledge depends not only on new methods and concepts but also on interaction with other fields of research. The principles and methods of biophysics should be a rational language for discussion not only between scientists of the different disciplines of natural sciences‚ such as physics‚ mathematics‚ biochemistry‚ molecular biology and biotechnology‚ but also for medicine and social sciences as well. This is the general philosophy behind the organization of the Summer Schools organized by Rudjer Institute‚ Zagreb‚ Croatia and the Croatian Biophysical Society. The International Summer Schools on Biophysics have a very broad scope. This is in contrast to the other workshops or schools which are centred mainly on one topic or technique. The intention was to organize courses which provided advanced training at doctoral or postdoctoral level in biosciences. Therefore‚ the Schools essentially have a catalytic role and are complementary to‚ rather than competing with‚ activities of parallel national or international programmes.

- 1. Structural Basis of Protein Synthesis; C. Schaffitzel, N. Ban. - 2. The Relationship Between Protein Sequence, Structure and Function: Protein Function Prediction; A. Tramontano, D. Cozzetto. - 3. Differences in Binding of Stereoisomers to Protein Active Sites; G. Klebe. - 4. Analytical Centrifugation: Looking at Aggregation in Free Solution; P.J.G. Butler. - 5. Time Resolved Protein Fluorescence. Application to Multi-Tryptophan Proteins; Y. Engelborghs. - 6. Novel (Bio)chemical and (Photo)physical Probes for Imaging Living Cells; E.A. Jares-Erijman, C. Spagnuolo, L. Giordano, M. Etchehon, J. Kawior, M.V. Mañalich-Arana, M. Bossi, D.S. Lidke, J.N. Post, R.J. Vermeij, R. Heintzmann,K.A. Lidke, D.J. Arndt-Jovin, T.M. Jovin. - 7. Observing Structure and Dynamics of Membrane Proteins by High-resolution Microscopy; A. Engel. - 8. A 2D-Infrared Study of Human Lipoproteins; X. Cotto, I. Iloro, J.L.R. Arrondo. - 9. An Introduction to Biological Solid State NMR; A. Dodd, F. Separovic. - 10. Multi-Frequency EPR Spectroscopy Studies of the Structure and Conformational Changes of Site-Directed Spin Labelled Membrane Proteins; H.-J. Steinhoff. - 11. Identification of Protein Structure and its Modifications by Electrospray Mass Spectrometry in Proteomics; J. Peter-Katalinic. - 12. A Microscopic Study of Disorder-Order Transitions in Molecular Recognition of Unstructured Proteins: Hierarchy of Structural Loss and the Transition State Determination from Monte Carlo Simulations of P27KIP1 Protein Coupled Unfolding andUnbinding; G.M. Verkhivker. - 13. Computational Detection of the Binding Site Hot Spot and Predicting Energetics of Ligand Binding at the Remodeled Human Growth Hormone-Receptor Interface Using a Hierarchy of Molecular Docking and Binding Free Energy Approaches; G.M. Verkhivker. - 14. Molecular and Cellular Levels of Biological Evolution; M. Radman. - Index.

An enormous amount of new knowledge on the molecular basis of various biological phenomena has emerged in the rapidly expanding field of bioscience. Since the frontiers in scientific research are difficult to define‚ the creation of new knowledge depends not only on new methods and concepts but also on interaction with other fields of research. The principles and methods of biophysics should be a rational language for discussion not only between scientists of the different disciplines of natural sciences‚ such as physics‚ mathematics‚ biochemistry‚ molecular biology and biotechnology‚ but also for medicine and social sciences as well. This is the general philosophy behind the organization of the Summer Schools organized by Rudjer Institute‚ Zagreb‚ Croatia and the Croatian Biophysical Society. The International Summer Schools on Biophysics have a very broad scope. This is in contrast to the other workshops or schools which are centred mainly on one topic or technique. The intention was to organize courses which provided advanced training at doctoral or postdoctoral level in biosciences. Therefore‚ the Schools essentially have a catalytic role and are complementary to‚ rather than competing with‚ activities of parallel national or international programmes.