XXI Discussions in Structural Molecular Biology and 8th CIISB User Meeting Successfully Concluded

From March 20 to 22, 2025, the historic premises of the Nový Zámek chateau in Nové Hrady hosted the XXI Discussions in Structural Molecular Biology and the 8th User Meeting of the Czech Infrastructure for Integrative Structural Biology (CIISB). The conference welcomed 125 participants, who attended 27 scientific lectures, 9 short talks, and viewed 51 poster presentations

The program began with a tribute to Professor Vladimír Sklenář, a leading figure in the field of structural biology. This was followed by a lecture from the winner of the best Ph.D. thesis prize for 2024 Valerie Siahaan, Faculty of Science, Charles University and Institute of Biotechnology AS CR, currently at the Curie Institute (France):
"Tau proteins cooperatively assemble into cohesive coats that shield microtubules from severing enzymes."

A student competition was held in two categories:

• Best Student Oral Presentation:
• Klára Kohoutová, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague –
  "Structural basis of 14-3-3/Cyclin Y-mediated regulation of CDK16."
• Michaela Novotná, Institute of Microbiology, Czech Academy of Sciences –
  "CLINCELIN: A reengineered lincosamide overcoming ribosomal resistance through enhanced binding and structural flexibility."
• Best Student Poster Presentation:
• Jakub Hrubý, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne –
  "Escaping water into TEM: Methods to overcome preferred orientation in cryo-EM."
• Veronika Klápšťová, CEITEC, Masaryk University, Brno –
  "Structural characterization of the BRCA1-BARD1 interaction with RNA polymerase II."
• Martin Sitte, Loschmidt Laboratories, Masaryk University, Brno –
  "Functional characterization of the luminescence apparatus of the sea pen Pennatula phosphorea."

The organizers extend their heartfelt thanks to all participants for their contributions and active engagement, which helped make the event a success. Special thanks go to the sponsors for their generous support, which made this conference possible.

A few photos from the conference find here.