Training school: Computational modeling tools in drug discovery with natural products

Training school: Computational modeling tools in drug discovery with natural products

This training school is aimed at young European researchers and addresses the role that natural products currently have in the field of pharmacology.

From the 10th to the 12th of December, the city of San Cristóbal de La Laguna will host the training session "Computational modeling tools in drug discovery with natural products". This training school is organized by the Institute of Natural Products and Agrobiology of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the University Institute of Bio-organics "Antonio González" of the Universidad de La Laguna, with the support of the Cabildo de Tenerife and the Real Sociedad Española de Química and is part of the European cooperation initiative for science and technology COST Action Natchemdrugs.

The conference will take place in the ULL Student Services Building on the Anchieta Campus and will be attended by more than forty young researchers in training from all over Europe, who are active members of the working groups that conform this initiative.

They will focus on the learning and management of computational chemistry as a tool for modeling, virtual screening and optimization of pharmaceutically relevant compounds. During the training sessions, researchers will also have the opportunity to connect to ITER's Teide-HPC supercomputer, the second most powerful equipment in the country, located in the D-ALiX data centre in Granadilla de Abona.

This cooperative initiative brings together research groups from different scientific disciplines at European level with the aim to foster the discovery of new medicines by combining academic research with industrial needs, and using the chemistry from natural products. Due to their high levels of biodiversity, the Canary Islands are a natural laboratory for the identification of these new compounds of pharmacological relevance.

The COST Action Natchemdrugs provides researchers, engineers and academics with a trans-European network for the collaboration in research actions within the field of drug discovery from natural products and it is divided into four main areas of study: viral infections, cancer, tuberculosis and synthesis of natural products.

Once the training school is over, the COST Action Natchemdrugs project will conclude with a final meeting that will be held on 13 and 14 December in La Laguna Gran Hotel. The event will be attended by the president of the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry, Antonio M. Echavarren, who will participate as a plenary speaker.  

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Jornadas de formación sobre las Herramientas de modelado computacional en el descubrimiento de fármacos basados en productos naturales