The first meeting of the Protein Modelling Discussion Group (PMDG) was held at Astra Charnwood in Loughborough on October 18 1995. The meeting was attended by around 40 research scientists from UK industry and academia. The meeting was hosted by Darren Flower, Department of Physical Chemistry and BioAnalysis, Astra Charnwood.
The meeting was opened by Dr Phil Marshall, kindly deputising for Dr David Payling - director of Physical Chemistry and BioAnalysis. Dr Marshall welcomed the delegates on behalf of Astra Charnwood and wished the group well. During the day a number of distinguished external speakers gave talks reflecting the growing importance of protein modelling, protein sequence analysis, and structure-based design in the pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and biotechnology industries. The first lecture was delivered by Dr Terri Attwood, a Royal Society research fellow presently working at UCL. Dr Attwood described PRINTS: a database of protein sequence motif fingerprints which she has developed. This excellent talk was followed by one of equal quality given by Dr Frank Blaney, of SmithKline Beecham pharmaceuticals, on the subject of modelling G- protein coupled receptors. Dr Mansoor Saqi, of Glaxo Wellcome, closed the morning session with a thought-provoking lecture on low complexity protein sequences and their occurrence in protein structures. After a lunch and poster session, the afternoon session started with a talk by Dr Alan Mills, of Birkbeck College, about a collaborative course on the principles of protein structure run on the World Wide Web (WWW). Continuing the INTERNET theme, Dr Peter Murray-Rust, of Glaxo Wellcome, gave a glimpse of the future integration of chemical and biological data resources on the Net and outlined a new collaborative WWW course on structure based design.
The second meeting of the Protein Modelling Discussion Group (PMDG- 2) took place on May 23rd 1996 at Glaxo Wellcome Medicines Research Centre. The local organisers were Mansoor Saqi and Pam Thomas. Speakers included Rob Russell (ICRF), John Overington (Pfizer), David Osguthorpe (Bath), Roger Sayle (Glaxo), David Kitson (MSI/Biosym), Mike Sternberg (ICRF), and David Parry-Smith (Pfizer). (Russell Viner had to pull out at short notice due to the birth of his latest infant (congratulations !) and Mike Sternberg stood in at very short notice (many thanks !).
The third meeting took place on Wednesday May 28th 1997 at the site of Pfizer (Sandwich, Kent). Local organisers will be David Parry-Smith and John Overington. Please register with John Overington by Wednesday 21st May, stating name,