The First African Structural Biology Conference

Macromolecular Structure, Health and Biotechnology in Developing Countries

The Wilderness, South Africa

24-27 October 2006

The First African Structural Biology (FASB) conference will be held in The Wilderness, South Africa. The conference will focus on the contributions and potential contributions of Structural Biology to the development of science and the creation of wealth in Africa with some emphasis on biotechnology and the alleviation of the disease burden of Africa.

In particular, the conference has the following aims:

1. To promote structural biology in Africa, particularly in South Africa

2. To discuss contributions to the relief of disease, especially, TB, AIDS and malaria that have been made through an understanding of macromolecular structure

3. To provide the opportunity for South African students and scientists to meet and interact with some of the leading Structural Biologists in several fields that are relevant to our continent

4. To explore the merit and practicality of studying macromolecular structure in Africa

5. To discuss strategic and funding policies for structural biology and benchmark South Africa against other developing countries, notably Brazil and India

6. To identify projects of interest to the South African community in which structural analysis could play a role.

The early registration deadline is 1 May 2006. Abstracts are due on 31 August 2006

Expression of interest and registration forms can be submitted online by visiting our website:

http://sbio.uct.ac.za/conference

Plenary lecturers:

Tom Blundell (http://www-cryst.bioc.cam.ac.uk/~tom/) M. Vijayan (http://mbu.iisc.ernet.in/~mv/ ) Ed Egelman (http://www.people.virginia.edu/~ehe2n/) Peter Kwong (http://www.niaid.nih.gov/vrc/labs_kwong.htm) Joachim Frank (http://www.wadsworth.org/resnres/bios/frank.htm) Helen Saibil (http://people.cryst.bbk.ac.uk/~ubcg16z/) Igor Polikarpovhttp://www.if.sc.usp.br/pessoal/Gera_PadraoProf.msql?cod_obj=1178) Iain Campbell (http://www.ocms.ox.ac.uk/idc/) Gert Vriend (http://swift.cmbi.ru.nl/gv/) David Rice (http://www.shef.ac.uk/mbb/academic/staff/rice.html) James A. Sacchettini (http://puffer.tamu.edu/) Andreas Hoenger http://www.embl-heidelberg.de/ExternalInfo/hoenger/Hoenger_index.html) Krishna Murthy (http://main.uab.edu/show.asp?durki=34977) Ravi Acharya (http://www.bath.ac.uk/~bsssi/cgi/ravi_main.pl) Karolin Luger http://www.bmb.colostate.edu/faculty_detailed.cfm?lastname=Luger&firstna...) Steve Bryant http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Structure/RESEARCH/res.shtml) Christian Sommerhoff (http://webinfo.campus.lmu.de/view_person.cfm?ps=27095&cl=12)

Conference Organizer:

Trevor Sewell Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine Wolfson Pavilion, Level 3 Faculty of Health Sciences University of Cape Town Anzio Road Observatory, 7925 South Africa Tel.: +27-21-6502817 Fax: +27-21-6891528 E-mail: sewell@uctvms.uct.ac.za

Conference Organizing Committee:

Dr Arvind Varsani (arwind@science.uct.ac.za) Professor Girish Kotwal (gkotwal@curie.uct.ac.za) Professor Ed Sturrock (sturrock@curie.uct.ac.za) Dr Muhammed Sayed (msayed@uwc.ac.za) Dr David Pugh (dpugh@uwc.ac.za) Miss Eulashini Chuntharpursat (eulashini@uctbc1.uct.ac.za) Mrs Miranda Waldron (mwaldron@uctvms.uct.ac.za)

Miranda Waldron, Electron Microscope Unit, University of Cape Town, South Africa

Tel +944 (0)21 650 2818 Fax +944 (0)21 689 1528