Organized by
Scientific Program
Protein Science in the Post-AlphaFold Era: New Challenges – New Paradigms
Program notice
The program presented below reflects the current structure of Prague Protein Spring 2026. While the list of
speakers and thematic sessions is confirmed, minor adjustments to the schedule and session timing may
occur as organizational details are finalized. The final version of the conference program will be published on May 1, 2026.
Thursday 7 May 2023
17:00 - 19:00 Registration
Opening: Jiří Vondrášek IOCB Prague, Mikael Oliveberg Stockholm University, Michele Vendruscolo University of Cambridge
Opening Keynote (19:00 - 20:00)
19:00 - 20:00 David Baker - University of Washington, USA
Protein design using deep learning
20:00 - 22:00 Welcome Reception / Welcome Drink
Friday 8 May 2023
BLOCK 1: Physical Principles of Protein Folding and Evolution (8:30 - 12:50)
08:30 - 09:15 Eugene Shakhnovich - University of Harvard, USA
Protein evolution with and without chaperones
09:15 - 10:00 Patricia Clark - University of Notre Damme, USA
Translating measurements of sequence-dependent folding
10:00 - 10:30 Gabor Erdos - ELU Budapest, HU
Zero-shot prediction of thermodynamic properties
10:30 - 11:00 Coffee break
11:00 - 11:45 Stephen Fried - John Hopkins, USA
Protein Folding in the AI Era: What’s Left to Discover?
11:45 - 12:20 Ayala Shiber - Israel Institute of Technology, IL
Evolution of protein folding and assembly pathways
12:20 - 12:50 Iva Pritisanac - Helmholtz Munich, Institute of Computational Biology, DE
A functional map of the human intrinsically disordered proteome
12:50 - 14:10 Lunch Break
BLOCK 2: AI, AlphaFold and the Limits of Structure Prediction (14:10 - 18:30)
14:10 - 14:55 Michele Vendruscolo - University of Cambridge, UK
Drug design for undruggable targets using AI
14:55 - 15:35 George Makhatadze - Rensealler Polytechnic Institute, USA
What do AI Tools for Protein Structure Prediction Actually Predict?
15:35 - 16:05 Alena Khmelinskaia - Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, DE
Function-driven design of protein assemblies
16:05 - 16:35 Coffee break
16:35 - 17:20 Sameer Velankar - EMBL-EBI, UK
When Proteins Became Predictable: AlphaFold and Beyond
17:20 - 18:00 Gennady Verkhivker - Chapman University, USA
Predicting Allostery in the AI Era: Protein Language Models, Agents and Biophysics
18:00 - 18:30 Ilaria Piazza - Stockholm University, SE
Protein structures in context with biophysics and cellular environment
18:30 - 19:30 Supper
19:00 - 22:00 Poster session
Saturday 9 May 2023
BLOCK 3: Protein Design, Chemical Biology and Synthetic Enzymology (8:30 - 13:00)
08:30 - 09:15 Valerie Daggett - University of Washington, USA
From discovery to design: Toward early detection and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease
09:15 - 09:55 Basile Wicky - ETH Zürich, CH
Interfacing with biology using protein design
09:55 - 10:30 Tomas Pluskal - IOCB AV CR, CZ
Decoding the chemical universe of plants
11:00 - 11:45 Nikolay Dokholyan - University of Virginia, USA
Early Molecular Events in Neurodegeneration
11:45 - 12:30 Lukasz Joachimiak - University of Texas. USA
Decoding Structural Polymorphism of Tau Amyloids 12:30 - 13:00 Ahrum Son - Scripps Research Institute, USA
Protein Structural Changes in Alzheimer’s Disease
13:00 - 14:15 Lunch Break
BLOCK 4: Disorder, Dynamics and Integrative Structural Biology (14:15 - 18:00)
14:15 - 14:55 Agnes Toth-Petroczy - Max Planck, Dresden, DE
Systems biology of disordered proteins and biomolecular condensates
14:55 - 15:35 Tiffany J. Callahan - Manas AI, USA
From Protein Conformational Landscapes to Cellular States
Structural plasticity in chemokines
16:05 - 16:35 Coffee Break
16:35 - 17:15 Andrea Soranno - Washington University, St Louis, USA
Single molecule spectroscopy of disordered proteins
17:15 - 18:00 Sebastian Hiller - University Basel, CH
Integrative structural biology with solution NMR spectroscopy
18:00 - 18:30 Closing Remarks and Discussion
19:30 - 22:00 Conference dinner
Sunday 10 May 2023
Departures