This summer school will cover different topics in protein and RNA design as listed below, and will focus on teaching modern modeling approaches in this domain, from statistical physics, computer science, and machine learning fields to recent experimental approaches. Main lectures will consist of 2 mornings of about 3 hours each, followed by afternoon seminars in the same domain and student projects.
The main topics are:
Protein and RNA Design.
Design of small molecules and medical applications: aptamers, regulatory RNA,..
Design through in Vitro Evolution: Selex and Directed Evolution
Design for Immunology.
Techniques: Statistical Physics, Machine Learning, Bioinformatics, experimental techniques related to gene synthesis, screening, mutagenesis and experimental evolution.
The Summer School will be held in the Institute D'études Scientifiques De Cargèse, located in the island of Corsica, in France.
Google maps link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/muHWjzHjbvSKtsdk7
Travel and Schedule: Some of us will take a boat (Corsica Ferrys) for the trips to/from Ajaccio:
* Toulon to Ajaccio, on 17/08 at 20h30, arriving next day at 07h00.
* Ajaccio to Toulon on 29/08 at 23h55, arriving next day at 09h00.
We will try to organize 2 busses from Ajaccio to Cargèse, on the 18/08, in the morning around 08h30 and another in the afternoon around 16h00.
For the departure, there will be 1 or 2 busses (to be confirmed later) from Cargèse to Ajaccio, one on the 29/08 evening (around 9pm) and the other on Saturday morning (around 9am).
Otherwise you will have to cover your own taxi or rental car. See this link for further traveling suggestions.
Please ensure that your exact arrival time is correctly entered in your registration form on the IESC website. It is crucial we have the right schedules to organize the free shuttle from Ajaccio. We expect to have one shuttle departing Monday 18 in the morning from the harbour for participants arriving by ferry, and one in the afternoon/evening from the airport. The precise times of the shuttle will be communicated to you soon. If you do not take the free shuttle you will need to arrange your own transfer from Ajaccio to Cargese, which can cost approximately €120 by taxi during the day or €180 at night. IESC staff can help for booking the taxis.
Accommodation: Your rooms will be communicated to you at your arrival in Cargese. Accompanying persons (if any) can benefit from the free shuttle; they will be charged depending on the number of nights and meals they take. Be sure you have indicate them in the iesc web-site.
For the stay the cost is about: 471€ the 2-people room, 612€ for the 1 people room. 130€ for lunches, 50€ additional costs (dinner at IESC and aperitif). Note that you will have to cover your evening meals in Cargèse.
Projects: Participants will be asked to work in small groups (about 4 people) for about one hour per day on a practical project, and they will present the results at the end of the school.
Materials (slides, notebooks, ...): link.
Please apply by filling this form. If your application is accepted, you will also be required to fill a form in the website of the Institute D'études Scientifiques De Cargèse for lodging. For now it is not necessary to specify travel details, this will be done after acceptance. There is no registration fee, but travel, housing, and food expenses will be covered by yourself.
The deadline to apply is: 15 June 2025. Priority will be given to early applicants.
Attendants are expected to stay for the full duration of the school.
Lecturers:
John Paul Barton (Pittsburgh, US)
Rémi Monasson (ENS, Paris)
Sergey Ovchinnikov (MIT, Cambridge US)
Joseph W. Thornton (Chicago U.)
Jérôme Tubiana (Tel Aviv U.)
Francesco Zamponi (ENS, Paris)
Seminars:
David Bikard (Pasteur, Paris)
Bastien Boussau (U. Lyon)
Alessandra Carbone (U. Sorbonne, Paris)
Pau Creixell (Cambridge, UK)
Matteo Dal Peraro (EPFL, Lausanne)
R. A. Goldstein (UCL, London)
Victor Greiff (U. Oslo)
Sergei Grudinin (U. Gernoble)
S. E. Liao (NYU)
Philippe Nghe (ESPCI, Paris)
Marco Ribezzi (ESPCI, Paris)
Olivier Tenaillon (INSERM, Paris)
Donate Weghorn (Centre for Genomic Regulation, Barcelona)
More updates soon ...
Program available at this link.
Simona COCCO (LPENS, Paris)
Jorge FERNANDEZ-DE-COSSIO-DIAZ (CNRS, IPhT)
Martin WEIGT (LCQB Sorbonne U.)
This conference has been supported by the HORIZON MSCA Staff Exchange "SIMBAD" (grant 101131463), the Physics Department of the ENS, Paris, the Institut d'Etudes Scientifiques de Cargese, and as part of the France 2030 program with the reference "ANR-11-IDEX-0003".