Third Annual Meeting of the ProteoCure COST Action

Hotel Mercure Warszawa Grand, Warsaw, Poland

May 7^th-10^th, 2024

The COST action ProteoCure aims at gathering European research teams and companies sharing the objective to develop new approaches and strategies to selectively manipulate protein fate for therapeutic or biotechnological purposes. 

In this annual conference, our aim is to unite individuals from academia, clinical sector, and industry, covering various fields of proteostasis, extending from biological sciences, which involve protein modification and turnover to diseases and molecular chemistry. We aspire to increase collaborations and scientific exchange by having as many short talks as possible. 

Opening Lecture: Marcin Drąg (Wrocław University of Science and Technology, PL)  

Session 1: “Drugs by Design”

Keynote speaker I: Galia Blum (The Hebrew University, IL)

Keynote speaker II: Monique Mulder (Leiden University Medical Center, NL)

Session 2: „Industry-Driven Science: Discoveries and Collaborations”

Session 3: „From Bench to Bedside” + Roundtable discussion with patient organizations

Keynote speaker I: Esther Sammler (University of Dundee, UK)

Keynote speaker II: Patrick Vourc`h (Université de Tours, FR)

Session 4: „Renewal from within"

Keynote speaker: Hemmo Meyer (University of Duisburg-Essen, DE)

Session 5: „Imbalance in Quality Control”

Keynote speaker: Nico Dantuma (Karolinska Intitute, SE)

Session 6: „Proteolysis driven Approaches”

Keynote speaker: Michele Vendruscolo (University of Cambridge, UK)

The European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) is a funding organisation for the creation of research networks, called COST Actions. These networks offer an open space for collaboration among scientists across Europe (and beyond).

The ProteoCure COST Action aims to foster research and innovation in the field of proteolysis with the goal of manipulating the proteolysis machinery for the development of novel, specific and efficient therapies.

Proteins are essential molecular actors in every cellular process. From their synthesis to their degradation, they are subject to continuous and precise control mechanisms to ensure that they properly and timely take on their functions to fulfil cellular needs.

Proteolysis (i.e. degradation of proteins) is a key biological process that directly controls individual protein expression levels and ensures the degradation of abnormal proteins. Proteolysis malfunctions can either lead to accumulation of deleterious proteins or toxic protein aggregates, or to excessive degradation and therefore insufficient expression of normal proteins. Hence, alterations in proteolysis are implicated in multiple human diseases such as cancer, degenerative diseases, developmental and aging disorders, as well as in infectious diseases. Manipulating the proteolytic machinery to selectively control abundance of specific proteins is a strategy with enormous potential for therapeutic intervention.