Do you need to engineer your protein of interest? Do you wish to employ user-friendly one-stop-shop software tools for the design of mutations and libraries, but do not want to spend time on tedious installations? This interactive course will provide the essential theory and hands-on experience on a number of web-based tools suitable for mining new enzyme, engineering the activity, specificity, enantioselectivity, stability, and solubility of enzymes.

You will have the chance to learn and discuss with the developers of these tools the optimal way to set-up calculations and adequately interpret the results. Special time will be devoted to the proteins of interest of the individual participants. At the end of this 2-day course, you will be able to independently design different properties of proteins for your academic research or commercial applications.

Web-tools covered: EnzymeMiner, HotSpot Wizard, Solubis, SoluProt, Caver Web, CaverDock, LoopGrafter, FireProt, FireProt^ASR, FireProt^DB and CalFitter. Our web tools integrate individual software, and altogether, you will get automated access to more than 50 computational methods and 15 databases.

The course is primarily meant for protein and metabolic engineers with no prior experience in computer modeling and bioinformatics. The experts willing to broaden their current computational protein design toolbox will also benefit from this course. Doctoral students, postdocs, and staff members from both academia and companies are welcome.

The 1^st Hands-on Computational Enzyme Design Course was hosted in the classical on-site format, and it took place in February 2020 in Brno, Czech Republic. We had 33 participants from 12 countries and 3 continents, about 2/3 from academia (ex.: Zurich University, KTH Royal Institute, Georgia Institute of Technology) and 1/3 from industry (ex.: DTU Biosustain, Pfizer, Novartis Pharma).

During 4 days the participants learned the background theory of computational enzyme design, practiced the exercises with the tools that we prepared and worked on their own problems of interest, always assisted by our team of experts. Knowledge and experience was exchanged in a friendly multicultural environment, with an extensive social program, and the feedback was extremely positive. Here is a selection of testimonies from the participants:

• Extremely useful! (Academia)
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• This course gave a very interesting overview of the available methods (…) The organization was superb, the lecturers were extremely approachable and the information provided was very relevant. Would recommend it to everybody who is looking for an introduction to computational enzyme design. (Academia)
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• Interesting tools, well-planned program, and nice people! I’d highly recommend participation in this course if you are looking to learn about the impressive range of online tools developed at the Loschmidt Laboratories. (Industry)
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• Excellent organization and incredibly motivated tutors; great way to familiarize yourself with computational approaches for enzyme engineering. (Industry)
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• The course is a very good introduction to computational enzyme engineering for non-bioinformaticians. The open discussions and useful computer exercises gave me a better understanding of the field (…) Besides the quality of the course contents, I have to say the social program and hospitality of the organizers were superb. I would definitely recommend it! (Academia)

This on-site edition included a wider range of tool, web-based and stand-alone, some of which cannot be covered on an online version (ex.: Blast, Swiss-Model, PyMOL, AutoDock Vina, FuncLib, AffiLib, Yasara, Caver, Caver Analyst). This format of the course will be repeated in the future. If you are interested, subscribe to our newsletters and stay tuned.

The 2^nd edition of the course will be organized online for the safety reasons.

The registrations will be open between January 25th and April 26th, 2021. Early-bird discounts apply. The invoice will be issued based on the information provided during the registration. The course is limited to 40 participants, prioritized based on their registration order. Do not miss your chance and register now! Click on the button below to register.

The registration fee includes:

• Attendance to all theoretical lectures and hands-on sessions
• Course materials: slides of the theoretical lectures, step-by-step protocols, useful tips & tricks, relevant literature
• Advanced hands-on exercises
• Trouble-shooting guidance
• Graduation certificate