European MicroCal Meeting – review and revisit!

by Natalia Markova, Thursday, 11th May 2017

In September 2016 Malvern Instruments co-organized a European MicroCal meeting with Institut Pasteur and ARBRE European molecular biophysics network. The meeting was very successful and sparked animated discussions during scientific presentations, panel and poster sessions and interactive workshops. A key focus was on best practice for experimental design and data analysis to ensure high-quality data and informed decisions that help drive scientific projects forward.

In two days, together with more than 120 participants from 19 countries, we covered a wide range of topics, from interaction and kinetic analysis with ITC to stability profiling of proteins, vaccines and liposomes, and fingerprinting of biofluid samples using DSC.

”I liked the workshop session and that the meeting was very interactive. The venue was great and easily accessible.” Blanca Lopez, Copenhagen University
“I liked the way the sessions were structured around different topics and the meeting was very useful also for novice users” Inna Rozman Grinberg, Stockholm University
”The great thing with this meeting is that every presentation is interesting and so relevant for my research” Daumantas Matulis, Vilnius University

Well-recognized biophysics experts from industry and academia presented side-by-side with talented new members of the growing community of calorimetry users. Geoff Holdgate (AstraZeneca, Cambridge, UK) talked on the power of orthogonal biophysical methods exemplified by an integrative structural biology study. Joe Coyle (Astex Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, UK) brought ITC data quality and the intricacies of data interpretation into focus. Novel approaches to the analysis of ITC data were detailed by David Landy (Dunkerque University, France) and Angel Pineiro (AFFINImeter, Santiago, Spain).

Anne Imberty (CERMAV, Grenoble, France) and Eric Ennifar (Strasbourg University, France) shared their experience in pushing the limits of ITC technology in interaction and kinetic analysis of biochemical samples of increasing levels of complexity. Kasper Huus (Novo Nordisk, Denmark) and Frederic Greco (Sanofi Pasteur, France) discussed profiling and optimizing the stability of protein therapeutics and vaccines with DSC, while Adrian Velazquez Campoy (University of Zaragoza, Spain) and François Devred (Marseille University, France) presented their recent data on the application of DSC to the study of blood samples.

Following multiple requests for the content shared during the meeting, our co-organizer ARBRE-MOBIEU has kindly set up a website where you can find much of the material covered during the meeting.

We are confident this wonderful scientific content can assist scientists from various disciplines in a wide range of applications. We were delighted to receive lots of positive comments from the delegates about the program and the quality of the talks and we’ll keep you posted about our plans for the new scientific events of equal caliber in the future.