Hotel Neu-Schönstatt, Quarten (SG), Switzerland · 7–9 October 2026
Contributed talks are 15 min (12 min + 3 min discussion); the closing talk on Friday is 30 min.
Wednesday 7 October 2026
| Time | Programme | |
|---|---|---|
| 15:00–16:30 | Registration | |
| 16:30–17:30 | Welcome apéro | |
| 17:30–17:45 | Opening remarks — Organizing committee | |
| 17:45–18:30 | Keynote I · Cornelius Gati — University of Southern California, Los Angeles Understanding Ligand Efficacy at the μ-Opioid Receptor by Cryo-EM |
|
| 18:30–20:15 | Dinner | |
| 20:15–21:45 | Session 1: Next-Gen Cryo-Electron Microscopy 6 talks · 15 min each (12 + 3 Q&A) |
|
| 20:15–20:30 | Juan Estévez-Gallego — PSI, Villigen Structural basis of microtubule destabilization by GTP hydrolysis |
T01 |
| 20:30–20:45 | Alberto Caregnato — University of Geneva Molecular Glue at the Cell Surface: How CIF Peptides Assemble and Activate Plant Receptor Complexes |
T02 |
| 20:45–21:00 | Hugo R. Vaca — IGBMC, Strasbourg Unlocking the Ubiquitin Code: Structural Snapshots of UBE3A Activation in Neurodevelopment and Cancer |
T03 |
| 21:00–21:15 | Maria Jose Marcaida — EPFL, Lausanne Cryo-EM structures of the porin MspA in detergent and polymer nanodiscs |
T04 |
| 21:15–21:30 | Anh-Phu Nguyen — AFMB, CNRS – Aix-Marseille University Structural and functional characterization of GacS, the membrane-bound histidine kinase controlling infection modes in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and development of novel inhibitory nanobodies |
T05 |
| 21:30–21:45 | Rakhshana Bala Krishnan — IGBMC, Strasbourg Reconstitution of the human elongation complex to study its structure by cryo-EM |
T06 |
| 21:45–24:00 | Networking & social exchange | |
Thursday 8 October 2026
| Time | Programme | |
|---|---|---|
| 07:00–08:30 | Breakfast | |
| 08:30–09:15 | Keynote II · Matthew J. Rodrigues — Diamond Light Source, Didcot XFEL Snapshots Reveal the Activation Mechanism of Rhodopsin, the Mammalian Dim-Light Visual Receptor |
|
| 09:15–10:30 | Session 2: Advanced Structural Methods – serial and time-resolved crystallography 5 talks · 15 min each (12 + 3 Q&A) |
|
| 09:15–09:30 | Michal W. Kepa — PSI, Villigen Cristallina-MX: Serial and time-resolved protein crystallography at SwissFEL |
T07 |
| 09:30–09:45 | Thomas Mason — PSI, Villigen Drop-on-Chip Rapid-Mixing for Time-Resolved Serial Crystallography at SwissFEL |
T08 |
| 09:45–10:00 | René Rasche — PSI, Villigen Initial Photochemistry of Vision by TR-SFX: Towards Femtosecond-Resolved Snapshots of Retinal Isomerization in Rhodopsin |
T09 |
| 10:00–10:15 | Sofia M. Kapetanaki — MAX IV Laboratory, Lund Insights in the signal transduction pathway of a photoactivated adenylate cyclase |
T10 |
| 10:15–10:30 | Yanyan Chen — Serial X AB, Gothenburg Serial X – Simple Solutions for Serial Synchrotron Crystallography |
T11 |
| 10:30–11:00 | Znüni break & group picture | |
| 11:00–12:00 | Session 3: Advanced Biophysical Methods – integrative characterization of interactions and dynamics 4 talks · 15 min each (12 + 3 Q&A) |
|
| 11:00–11:15 | Théo D'Andrea — IBMC, CNRS, Strasbourg Overcoming the bacterial antibiotic resistances using a macrolide–antimicrobial peptide chimera |
T12 |
| 11:15–11:30 | Andreas Zoumpoulakis — Sorbonne University, Paris Deciphering the Role of Modulators in Human Kir2.1 Potassium Channel Gating through Integrative Approaches |
T13 |
| 11:30–11:45 | Matthias Zeug — University of Basel Structural Basis for RasGAP Activity Regulation |
T14 |
| 11:45–12:00 | Pedro Jiménez-Sandoval — University of Lausanne Sensing danger in sugar: structural basis of DAMP recognition by IGP1 |
T15 |
| 12:00–13:15 | Lunch | |
| 13:30–18:00 | Excursion | |
| 18:45–20:30 | Conference dinner | |
| 20:30–21:15 | Keynote III · Sandra Markovic-Müller — leadXpro AG, Villigen Unlocking Challenging Membrane Proteins for Drug Discovery at leadXpro |
|
| 21:15–22:00 | Session 4: Cryo-Electron Microscopy II 3 talks · 15 min each (12 + 3 Q&A) |
|
| 21:15–21:30 | Hugo Muñoz-Hernández — ETH Zürich A cryo-EM processing pipeline for microtubules using CryoSPARC (MiCSPARC) |
T16 |
| 21:30–21:45 | Günter Fritz — University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart Maturation of the respiratory NQR complex from bacterial pathogens |
T17 |
| 21:45–22:00 | Anna Higgins — Thermo Fisher Scientific Innovation Inside and Out: The Power of 200 kV, Introducing Glacios 3 |
T18 |
| 22:00–24:00 | POSTER SESSION — Dedicated poster session with drinks | |
Friday 9 October 2026
| Time | Programme | |
|---|---|---|
| 07:00–08:30 | Breakfast | |
| 08:30–09:15 | Keynote IV · Alisia Fadini — Columbia University, New York OpenFold as a Prior: Guiding Structure Prediction through Experiments with ROCKET |
|
| 09:15–12:00 | Session 5: Artificial Intelligence, Automation and Computational Methods 7 talks · 15 min each (12 + 3 Q&A) |
|
| 09:15–09:30 | Jiaxin Duan & David Perl — PSI, Villigen Automation at the SLS 2.0 Macromolecular Crystallography (MX) Beamlines |
T19 |
| 09:30–09:45 | Ryan O'Dea — PSI, Villigen PROBIXI – Self-Calibrating Probabilistic Peak Detection for Serial X-Ray Crystallographic Data |
T20 |
| 09:45–10:00 | Alexandre G. Urzhumtsev — IGBMC, Strasbourg FT-free calculation of Variable Resolution Maps in CCTBX and Phenix |
T21 |
| 10:00–10:15 | Filipa Engrola — PSI, Villigen Warming Up Fragment Screening: Cryo2RT Data and AI Structure Prediction in the EP System |
T22 |
| 10:15–10:30 | Jakob Teetz — ETH Zürich Integrating Molecular Dynamics Simulations and NMR Relaxometry through Explicit Models of Protein Side-Chain Dynamics |
T23 |
| 10:30–11:00 | Znüni break | |
| 11:00–11:15 | Vernon Smith — Bruker Structure-Based Drug Discovery in the Home-Lab |
|
| 11:15–11:30 | Mila Schmidlin — University of Basel High affinity de novo binders enable structural studies of the bacterial lipid transporter AsmA |
T24 |
| 11:30–12:00 | Martin Pacesa — University of Zurich BindCraft2: open and universal design of protein binders for any target |
T25 |
| 12:00–12:15 | Concluding remarks & handover to the 2027 organizers | |
| 12:15–14:00 | Farewell lunch & departure | |
Book of abstracts: https://indico.psi.ch/event/18148/page/3643-book-of-abstracts