The Loschmidt Laboratories win the Masaryk University Innovation Award.

Jiří Damborský and Zbyněk Prokop have won a Masaryk University (MUNI) Innovation Award for their pioneering commercialisation efforts .

Enantis is the first biotechnology spin-off of Masaryk University. Inspired by the colleagues at Groningen University in The Netherlands, Enantis was started by Zbynek Prokop and Jiri Damborsky when Masaryk University did not have a tech-transfer office. With the great help of the young South Moravian Innovation centre, establishing a technology company helped cultivate an academic environment and set up necessary processes for effective transfer of results from academic research to practice. Other companies followed. Enantis is currently known for the production of hyperstable growth factors essential for the cultivation of stem cells (FGF2), which were engineered using the platform developed by the Loschmidt Laboratories. Both Loschmidt Laboratories and Enantis are Es-Cat partners and benefited from the creative and collaborative ecosystem of this European network. 

Masaryk University page: https://www.em.muni.cz/udalosti/14463-masarykova-univerzita-poprve-ocenila-inovacni-pociny?utm_source=link_uni&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=linkedin

Masterclass: “Computational Approaches and In Silico Enzyme Library Design for Applied Biocatalysis”

Goal
The course aims to make participants familiar with the use of structural biology and computational tools for engineering the performance of enzymes that are relevant for applied biocatalysis and synthetic biology. The course provides both a theoretical background on computational methods relevant to enzyme engineering (protein crystallography, homology modeling, energy calculations, protein design, smart libraries), and hands-on computer exercises on visualization and analysis of enzymes structures, including docking simulations and enzyme redesign. The theoretical and practical parts are integrated in a few problem-solving modules. Participants will have the opportunity to share their research via short oral presentations, posters, and interactive lectures.

Topics
Protein crystallography and structure analysis
Homology modeling, docking and molecular dynamics simulations (Yasara)
Computational enzyme (re)design (Rosetta)
Enzyme engineering supported by web tools
Sequence- and structure-based smart libraries
Thermostability and stereoselectivity engineering
Industrial examples of enzyme engineering

Tutors and teachers
Dick Janssen, University of Groningen
Hein Wijma, University of Groningen
Andy-Mark Thunnissen, University of Groningen
Jiri Damborsky, Masaryk University, Brno
David Bednar, Masaryk University, Brno
Marc van der Kamp, University of Bristol
Rene de Jong, DSM Delft
Emanuele Monza, Zymvol, Barcelona

Masterclass coordination
Dick Janssen, Hein Wijma, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Jiri Damborsky and David Bednar, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
Sandra Haan & Tamara Hummel, GBB, University of Groningen, The Netherlands

Intended participants
PhD students, post docs and other researchers skilled in biochemistry who want to become familiar with structure-based and computational approaches in Enzyme Engineering. Partners of the H2020 ES-Cat and other EU collaborative projects and training networks are offered priority reduced fee registration. Note: participants are offered the opportunity to share their research via posters and participant talks.

To Apply
Details will follow. For info: mccomputational@rug.nl.