Summer School on Single-Molecule Biophysics

    How to acquire the credits for the summerschool?

Deadline : September 15th, 2010

Topics for the paper can be found here.

KU Leuven students wishing to acquire the official credit in their study programme must admit the course number of the summer school G0U40A in their ISP.  They will get the result of their paper together with the other results in february 2011.

Non KU Leuven students and KU Leuven students not wishing to acquire the official credit in their study programme will receive their results beginning October 2010.

At the interface between biology, physics and chemistry, single-molecule biophysics is essential in the elucidation of modern biological questions. The field of single-molecule studies comprises two main areas, one dealing with the development and improvement of methodologies allowing single-molecule studies and the other focusing on the application of such methodologies in addressing important scientific questions. Single-molecule biophysics makes use of high-resolution fluorescence, scanning probe microscopy, manipulation techniques based on optical and magnetic tweezers and, more recently, solid-state nanofabricated structures in order to investigate protein folding, DNA and RNA structure, biological assembly and function, molecular motors and studies in living cells.
The Faculty of Science of the KU Leuven is organizing in collaboration with the Arenberg Doctoral School and the Belgian Biophysical Society a Summer School dedicated to Single-Molecule Biophysics targeted at Master and PhD students interested in modern multidisciplinary sciences. The main objective of this school is to provide the attendees with a broad introduction to the main techniques and modelling strategies used in single-molecule studies (e.g. super-resolution optical techniques, scanning probe methods, nanofabricated structures, anomalous diffusion models, molecular motors) as well as to provide examples of modern research topics (e.g. protein dynamics and folding, DNA sequencing etc.). For this purpose, the programme is organized in 5 main themes:

• Single-molecule optical microscopy
• Scanning probe techniques
• Protein dynamics and folding
• Use of natural and solid-state nanopores for sensing and DNA sequencing
• Modeling of diffusion processes in cells.

One afternoon will be dedicated to an experimental demo session to illustrate high-resolution fluorescence techniques to a reduced number of participants (selected on the first-come, first-served principle). The demo session will be organized in the Single-Molecule Laboratory of Prof. Johan Hofkens (KU Leuven).

Registration : Extended deadline for registration is June 30th!!!

Fee with accomodation is 250 euro.
This includes a room in a student residency, breakfast, lunch, a bike, coffee break, social programme and course material.

Fee without accomodation is 100 euro.
This includes coffee breaks, lunches, social programme and course material.

Registration via our registration tool is only completed after payment of the registration fee.

Accountnr. 432-0000011-57 KU Leuven, Krakenstraat 3, B-3000 Leuven
Swift code : KRED BE BB
IBAN : BE09 4320 0000 1157
! Important: don't forget to mention the reference number and name: 400/0004/41286 + name

The participants must be insured by their home university. The KU Leuven does not accept any liability for students other than students registered at the KU Leuven for a fulltime programme.