Evening Lectures
Albany Conversation tradionally holds long evening lectures in areas of fundamental interest to structural biology. This year, the topic is high end protein crystallography. Tour de force presentations will be by Nobel Laureate Robert Huber, Max Plank Institut fuer Biochemie, Martisried, Germany, and Wolfram Saenger, Free University of Berlin, Germany.

The 50th Anniversary of the DNA Double Helix Discovery
Alexander Rich of MIT and Paul Doty of Harvard lived through the events which led to the discovery of the double helical structure of DNA. They share their participation and experiences in the unfolding of the DNA drama. In adddition, Alexander Rich will tell the tantalizing tale of Z-DNA playing a crucial role in the taming of Vaccina and Ebola smallpox viruses.

DNA-Protein Recognition
Here we deal with special situations where DNA protein recognition drives the onset of diseases, genetic mobile elements, complex recombination kabuki dances, extravagant strutting and bending of DNA. Tahir Tahirov, RIKEN Harima Institute, Japan, will address on disease related transcription factors. Marlene Belfort, NY State Dept. of Health will lecture on intron endonuclease l-Tevl, which is like a restriction enzyme with a large recognition sequence and strange extended structure. Rasika Harshey, Univ. of Texas, Austin, takes up MU, the bacterial virus which employs repeated transposition and integration into the host genome for propagation. The DNA matrix in the Mu transposome is the most complex DNA arrangement seen so far today in a recombination synapse. High resolution bending of the double helix is the topic of discussion by Haim Rozenberg, Weizmann Institute, Israel.

RNA Stories
So much happening in RNA that we decided to cover only RNA informatics, splicing and small RNAs. Jake Maizel, NIH elaborates on the implications of RNA informatics. Nancy Greenbaum, Florida State Univ. Tallahaasee, has really interesting NMR work on the structure of the RNA containing the bulge site adenine in splicing reactions. In particular she has shown that the A flips out only when the correct pseudouridine base is included at an adjacent position. Tom Tuschl, Max Plank Institut, Geottingen, Germany, delivers on the hot stuff in the RNA field now: small interference RNA & small micro RNA in human cells. Sam Butcher, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, dwells on the structure of the yeast U6 splicing RNA by NMR, covering such aspects as dynamics, base ionization & metal binding. RNA evolution is addressed in another session.

Unfolded Proteins
Sculpted by the catholic genetic code, these proteins biologically function in a disordered motif. Do they travel to a cul de sac of protected pH and ions in the cell to transfigure to disorder? Keith Dunker, Washington State Univ. provides an overview, convincing you that enzymes are ordered and signalling proteins are intrinsically disordered. Volodya Uversky, UC Santa Cruz will demonstrate that alpha-synuclein is a natively unfolded protein, Aggregation of alpha-synuclein is tightly associated with many neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's disease, implicating a crucial role of aggregated forms of alpha-synuclein in the pathogenesis. Celeste Brown, University of Idaho, and Gary Pielak, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, will address evolution of unstructured proteins and the crowded condition in a cell vis-a-vis unfolded proteins.

Structural Genomics: Ab Initio Protein Structure Prediction.
George Rose, Johns Hopkins, Alexei Finkelstein, Institute of Protein Research, Moscow-Pushchino, Russia, and Peter Wolynes, UC San Diego address the issue of ab initio protein structure prediction in these times when thousands of structures have to be solved for annotating the genome.

Structural Genomics: Experimental Protein Structure Determination
The limits of x-ray crystallography and NMR are being explored to determine rapidly the structures of overwhelming numbers of proteins by Udo Heinemann, MDC, Berlin, Germany and Cheryl Arrowsmith, Univ. of Toronto, Canada. Robert Shulman, Yale, explores the relationship between structure and function.

Structural Genomics: Evolution of Proteins and RNA
Visiting the past and trasporting to the future border on Divinity. We do this in Albany to energize the intellect and pay homage to our ancestral genes. Mark Gerstein, Yale and Igor Berezovsky, Weizmann & Hanah Margalit of Hebrew Univ., tell us protein & RNA evolution through the metabolic matrix from atavism.

Structural Genomics: DNA-Protein Recognition at the Genome Level
The fact of the matter is that a given protein binds to large number of locations in the genome, and these locations do not have identical sequences. So what principles govern DNA-protein recognitions? Janet Thornton, Univ. of London, EIB, Victor Zhurkin, NIH, and Gerald Koudelka, SUNY Buffalo explore the possibilities.

Single Molecules and Nanosciences
We show biomolecular action, one molecule at a time, folding and engaging in rendenvous with substrates. We also present structure determination of a single protein by NMR in a living cell & the design of molecules to perform mechanical tasks. Cell is a crowded place, and the developing ability of NMR to look at proteins, one at a time in a living cell, will profoundly alter our current thinking, and future directions. Speakers are: Toshio Yanagida, Osaka, Japan, Sunney Xie, Harvard, Laura Finzi, Milan, Italy, Carlos Bustamante, UC Berkeley, Michael Elbaum, Wiezmann, Israel, Nadrian Seeman, NYU, & Volker Doetcsh, UC, San Francisco.

Kees Hilbers, 65th Birthday Jubilee: Scientific Session
Kees Hilbers has been a friend of the Conversation, & the Journal of Biomolecular Structure & Dynamics, from their inception. From the pantheon of some 5000 people who have treked to Albany, since the commencement of these continuing Conversations in 1979, Kees has selected the following to address the Conversation on their recent achievements in RNA, DNA and proteins: Alfred Redfield, Brandeis , Juli Feigon, UCLA, Andrew Wang, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, Dino Moras, IGBMC, France, David Lilley, Dundee, UK, Sybren Wijmenga, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, & Jody Puglisi, Stanford.

Kees Hilbers, 65th Birthday: Evening Jubilee
We could not have found a better person than Ad Bax, NIH as Master of Ceremonies for this evening celebrations. People who are close to him personally & in science, say a few words. Among them are: Robert Shulman, Yale. Kees spent his early developing years with Shulman. A. Pardi, Colorado, M. Nilges, & M. Gueron, France represent just three, among the many, who have learnt a great deal from Kees's fundamental explorations in NMR. David Kearns, UC Dan Diego, comes from the early days of tRNA. Hans Hues knew Kees while he was growing up as an undergraduate. At the end Kees talks.

DNA-Cation Rendevous: A Panel Discussion
A 2.15 hr panel discussion to bring some order into the claims and counter claims on the structural dynamics of DNA-Cation Interaction. Panel members are: Pascal Auffinger, IBMC, Strasbourg, France; David Beveridge; Wesleyan Univ. ; Richard E. Dickerson; Univ. of California, Los Angeles; Martin Egli, Vanderbilt Univ.; David Gorenstein, Univ. of Texas; Bertil Halle, Lund Univ., Lund, Sweden; Nick Hud, Georgia Tech; Mary Kopka, Univ. of California, Los Angeles; Steve Neidle,Univ. of London; Zippi Shakked, Weizmann Institute, Israel; Irina Shkel, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison; Boris Shklovskii, Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis; Jiri Sponer, Czech Republic; Nancy Stellwagen, , Univ. of Iowa; Juan Subirana, UPC, Barcelona, Spain.

Speakers, Chairs and Guests

Adams, Claire, Penn State Univ. College of Medicine, Hershey
Aitken, Colin E, Wesleyan Univ
Andrushchenko, Valery, Univ. of Calgary, Canada
Arnott, Struther., Imperial College, London, UK
Arrowsmith, Cheryl, University of Toronto, Canada
Auffinger, Pascal, IBMC, Strasbourg, France
Babayan, Yu., Yerevan Sate University, Armenia
Banerjee, Ashok, Bose Institute, Kolkata, India
Bansal, Manju, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
Bax, Ad, National Institutes of Health
Belfort, Marlene , New York State Dept of Health
Berezovsky, Igor, Harvard Univ.
Beveridge, David, Wesleyan University
Biot, Christophe Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Birac J, New York Univ.
Bischoff, Gerlinde., Martin Luther Univ., Halle, Germany
Bishop, T, C., Tulane University
Brown, Celeste, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho
Broyde, Suse., New York University
Bustamante, Carlos, UC Berkeley
Butcher, Sam, Univ of Wisconsin, Madison
Byun, Suzie, Weseleyan Univ.
Chang, C-C, National Dong Hwa University, Hualien,Taiwan
Cao, En-hua, Academia Sinica, Bejing, China
Chakraborty B, New York Univ.
Chasov, V. V., Russian Acad. of Sciences, Pushchino, Moscow, Russia
Chattopadhyaya, Jyoti., University of Uppsala, Sweden
Cheatham, III, Thomas E., University of Utah, Salt Lake City
Chen C C, Wesleyan Univ.
Chen F. M., Tennessee State Univ.
Chou,S.-H., National Chung-hsing Univ., Taichung, Taiwan
Chin, K-H, National Chung-hsing Univ., Taichung, Taiwan
Cieplak, Piotr, Accelrys
Constantinou P, New York Univ.
Coleman, Bernard., Rutgers Univ.
Coman D., Wesleyan Univ.
Cowsik, Sudha, Jawaharlal nehru Univ., Delhi, India
Danilov, V. I., IMBG, Kiev, Ukraine
Dehouck, Yves , Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Delaney, S, Caltech
Dickerson, Richard, University of California Los Angeles
Dieckmann, Thorsten, UC Davis
Ding B, New York Univ
Dixit, S. B., Wesleyan Univ.
Djuranovic, Dragana, IBP, Paris, France
Doetcsh, Volker, University of California San Francisco
Doty, Paul, Harvard University
Duax, William, Hauptman-Woodward Institute, Buffalo
Dunker, Keith, Washington State Univ., Pullman
Dzhelyadin, T. R., ICB, Pushchino, Moscow, Russia
Egli, Martin, Vanderbilt University
Elbaum, Michael, Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, Israel
Elkady, A. S., Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
Engineer, E., RPI
Every, Alicia, Wesleyan Univ.
Gorin, Andrey, ORNL
Faiger, Hana, Technion- IIT, Haifa, Israel
Fedorova, Olga, NIBC, Russian Acad. of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia
Feigon, Juli, University of California Los Angles
Feng, Liping, Duke University
Finkelstein, Alexei, Insti. of Protein Res, Moscow- Pushchino, Russia
Fenley, Marcia, Florida State Univ., Talahassee
Finzi, Laura, University of Milan, Italy
Frank-Kamenetskii, Maxim. D., Boston University
Frasca, V., Microcal LLC, Northampton, MA
Fritzsche, W., IPHT, Jena, Germany
Gabrielian Anna, Armenian Acad. Sci., Armenia
Gao H G. , Wardsworth Center, Albany NY
Garibotti A, New York Univ
Gerstein, Mark, Yale University
Girard F C, Univ. of Nijmegen, Holland
Gmeiner, William., Wake Forrest University Medical School
Gold, B., Univ. of Nebraska Medical Center
Gorenstein, David, University of Texas, Galvenston
Greenbaum, Nancy, Florida State University, Tallahassee
Gueron, Maurice, Ecole Polytedchnique, Palaiseau, France
Gursky, Georgii, EIMB, Moscow, Russia
Halle, Bertil, University of Lund, Sweden
Hannoush, Rami, McGill Univ., Canada
Hansma, Helen, University of California Santa Barbara
Hamza, Adel, Institut Pasteur, Tunis, Tunesia
Haran Tali., Technion, Israel
Haririnia, Aydin, Univ. of Maryland, College Park
Harris, Amada, Virginia Commonwealth Univ., Richmond
Harris, Lester, Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis
Harshey, Rasika, University of Texas, Austin
Hazel R D, SUNY at Stony Brook
Heinemann, Udo, MDC fuer Molekulare Medizin, Berlin, Germany
Huether, Bobby, Hauptman-Woodward Insti., Buffalo
Hsiao, David , Academia Sinica, Taiwan
Hilbers, Kees, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Huber, Robert, MPI fuer Biochemie, Martinsried, Germany
Hud, Nick, Georgia Institute of Technology
Hues, Hans, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Israel L, New York Univ.
Ivanov, Valery. I., Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
Jain, Swapna, Georgia Tech
Jernigan, Robert, Iowa Sate University
Jia L, New York University
Jones, S, EBI, Wellcome Trust, Cambridge, UK
Kan, Lou-sing, Academia Sinica, Taiwan
Kanhere, Aditi, IISc, Bangalore, India
Kar, Sambit, Penn State Univ. College of Medicine, Hershey
Kearns, David, University of California, San Diego
Knee, Kelly M, Wesleyan Univ
Kennedy, Michael. A., Pacific Northwest Labs
Khakh S. K., Wadsworth Center, Albany
Kim, M. K., Johns Hopkins Univ.
Kopka, Mary, University of California Los Angeles
Kopatsch J, New York Univ.
Koudelka, Gerald, State University of New York Buffalo
Kuhn H, Boston Univ
Kulinski, Tadeusz, IBC, Polish Acad, of Sci., Poznan, Poland
Langley, David. R., Bristol Myers-Squibb
Lavesa-Curto M, Univ, of East Anglia, Norwitch, UK
Lee, S, Johns Hopkins
LeMaster, D M., Wadsworth Center, Albany NY
Leroy, Jean-Louis, ICSN Labs, Gif-sur-Yvette
Les, A, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
Li, Hanying, Duke University
Li, W., Wadsworth Center, Albany NY
Liao S, New York University
Liang, X L., Boston Unv.
Lilley, David, University of Dundee, UK
Lynch, S. M., RPI
Madalengoitia, Jose, Univ. of Vermont
Maiti, Motilal, IICB, Kolkata , India
Maizel, Jake, National Institutes of Health,
Malathi, R, University of Madras, India
Manrao, Suraj, Spectra Stable Isotopes
Margalit, Hanah, Hebew University, Jerusalem, Israel
Marky, L. A., Univ. of Nebraska Medical Center
Marx, Kenneth, Univ. of Mass, Lowell
Mikad, A M, Bowling Green Univ.
Mirny, Leonid, MIT
Moras, Dino, IGBMC, Illkirch, France
Mukerji, Ishita , Wesleyan University
Müller, J. S., Instit. of Patho. & Molec. Med., Hosp. Motol, Czech Rep.
Narayanan, Latha, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India
Nechipurenko, Yu. D., EIMB, Moscow, Russia
Neidle, Stephen, University of London, UK
Nelson, Donald, Clark University,
Nikonowicz, E. P., Rice University
Nilges, Michael, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
Norden, Bengt, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
Nussinov, Ruth, Tel Aviv Univ., Israel and NIH
Ohayon, Y, New York Univ.
Olson, Wilma, K., Rutgers University
Ostashevsky, Joseph, SUNY-Downstate Medical Center
Oussatcheva, Elena, Texas A and M Univ., Houston, TX
Ozoline, Olga, Russian Acad. Sciences, Pushchino, Moscow, Russia
Pardi, Arthur, University of Colorado, Boulder
Park, Sung Ha, Duke University
Pawley, N. H., Los Alamos National Lab
Pielak, Gary, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Pinto Y, New York Univ.
Pogozelski, Wendy, SUNY at Geneseo
Poltev, V. I., Benemerita Universidad Auto. Puebla, Mexico
Potaman V N., Texas A and M Univ., Houston TX
Protozanova E, Boton Univ.
Puglisi, Jody, Stanford University
Qu, Y., Virginia Common wealth Univ., Richmond
Ramachandran, Srinivasan , IGIB, Delhi, India
Reblova, Kamila, Masaryk Univ, Brno, Czech Republic
Redfield, Al, Brandeis University
Rewat, Urmila, Wadsworth Center
Rich, Alexander, MIT
Rose, George, Johns Hopkins
Rozenberg, Haim, Weizmann Institute,Rehovot, Israel
Rouzina, I. F., Univ. of Minnesota, St Paul
Ruben G C, Dartmouth College
Saenger, Wolfram, Free University of Berlin, Germany
Sarzynska, Joanna, IBC, Polish Acad, of Sci., Poznan, Poland
Shchyolkina, Anna, EIMB, Moscow, Russia
Seeman, Ned, New York University
Sengupta, J., Wadsworth Center, Albany NY
Shakked, Zippi, Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, Israel
Shanahan, H., EBI, Wellcome Trust, Cambridge, UK
Shen W, New York Univ.
Sherman W, New York Univ.
Shkel, Irina, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Shklovskii, Boris, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
Shulman, Robert, Yale University
Singh, L. P. S., Central Michigan Univ.
Sklenar, H., MDC, Berlin, Germany
Smolina I, Boston Univ
Sorokin, A. A., ICB, Pushchino, Moscow, Russia
Soumpasis, Dikeos Mario , University of Denmark, Denmark
Snoussi, K., Lund Univ., Sweden
Spackova N, Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic
Sponer, Jiri, Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic
Stellwagen, Nancy, University of Iowa
Struminskaya, Nina, EIMB, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
Subba Rao, Gita, All India Inst. of Med. Sci. , New Delhi, India
Subirana, Juan, Univ. Politecnica De Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
Sullivan, Mike R., Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis
Sugiyama, H., Tokyo Med. and Dent. Univ., Japan
Swigon, David, Rutgers Univ.
Tahirov, Tahir, RIKEN Harima Institute, Japan
Taillandier, Eliane, Univ of Paris, France
Tajmir-Riahi, H A, Univ of Quebec at Trois-Rivieres, QBK, Canada
Thenmalarchelvi, R University of Madras, Chennai, India
Thornton, Janet, University College, London UK
Tolstorukov, Michael, National Institutes of Health
Trantirek, L.ukas, UC Los Angeles
Trifonov, Edward, Haifa, Israel
Tsukroff, Eliana, Wesleyan Univ.
Tuschl, Tom, Rockefeller Univ.
Tworowska, I., Rice University
Ulyanov, Nick, University of California San Francisco
Uversky, Volodya, University of California Santa Cruz
Vardevanyan, P. O., Yerevan State Univ. Yerevan, Armenia
Varnai, Peter, IBPC, Paris, France
Vasanthi, G., Lady Doak College, Madurai, India
Vologodski, Alexander, New York Univ.
Walter N G, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Wang, Andrew, Academia Sinica, Taiwan
Wang T, New York Univ.
Wang X, New York Univ.
Weiser, Hal, University of Calgary, Canada
Weiss, Mike, Case Western Reserve University
Wijmenga, Sybren, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Welfle, Heinz, MDC, Berlin, Germany
Wolynes, Peter, University of California, San Diego
Wu G, New York Univ.
Wu, Yibing, Univ of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Xie, Sunney, Harvard University
Yanagida, Toshio, Osaka University, Japan
Yakovchuk P, Boston Univ
Yan, H., Duke University
Yu, Chin, Univ. of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Zakrzewska, Krystyna, IBP, Paris, France
Zeng J, New York Univ.
Zhang X, New York Univ.
Zhanpeisova A, New York Univ.
Zhong H, New York Univ.
Zhurkin, Victor, National Institutes of Health


Organizing Cmte

D. L. Beveridge,
Maxim Frank-Kamenetskii,
Robert Jernigan,
Thomas Cheatham,
Udo Heinemann,
C. W. Hilbers,
David Lilley,
Dino Moras,
Bengt Norden,
Ruth Nussinov,
Wilma Olson,
Alex Rich,
Wolfram Saenger,
Ned Seeman,
Zippi Shakked,
Jiri Sponer,
Ed Trifonov,
Chris Turner and
Victor Zhurkin