BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN TZID:Europe/Helsinki X-WR-TIMEZONE:Europe/Helsinki BEGIN:VEVENT UID:187000@bioscience.fi DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20260205T120000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20260205T130000 DTSTAMP:20260204T095752Z URL:https://bioscience.fi/events/frontiers-of-science-prof-avner-schlessin ger/ SUMMARY:Frontiers of Science: Prof. Avner Schlessinger DESCRIPTION:5th February at 12:00\nOnsite event\nin Presidentti auditorium\ , BioCity\nSpring 2026 program\n\nProf. Avner Schlessinger\, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai\, USA\nAI-guided discovery of conformation-spec ific inhibitors for challenging protein targets\n\nHost: Parthiban Marimut hu (Parthiban.Marimuthu@abo.fi)\n\nCoffee and sandwich served at 11:45\, f irst come first serve!\n\n \;\n\nSix PhD researchers and early-career postdocs are welcome to have a lunch and discuss with Prof. Schlessinger a fter the seminar. This is a great possibility to learn hosting skills in a friendly environment and create connections for future. Everyone is welco me to join\, BioCity Turku will offer the lunch.\n\nIf you got interested\ , please send an email to biocityturku@bioscience.fi\n\n \;\n\nProf. S chlessinger is an internationally recognized leader in the field of comput ational biochemistry and biophysics\, known for his pioneering works on me mbrane proteins such as ion channels (GIRK)\, and various membrane transpo rters particularly Solute Carrier Family (SLC). His research is centered o n understanding the fundamental mechanisms of allosteric regulation / solu te transport across membrane in these complex systems — a key aspect of cellular signaling and pharmacological modulation. To this end\, his group develops and applies integrating approaches in computational chemistry an d artificial intelligence\, and applying these atomistic molecular dynamic s simulations\, enhanced sampling methods\, and integrative bioinformatics approaches to characterize various disease pathways.\n\nA hallmark of Pro f. Schlessinger’s work is the development of robust and innovative proto cols that allow for the quantitative description of protein dynamics and f unction\, contributing significantly to the field’s methodological advan cement. His interdisciplinary research topic will not only deepens our mol ecular understanding of cell-surface receptors behavior\, but also informs drug discovery efforts targeting these medically relevant proteins. His w ork is frequently published in high-impact\, peer-reviewed journals and he is widely respected as a leader in the international scientific community .\n\n \;\n\nSelected publications\n\nDescribing inhibitor specificity for the amino acid transporter LAT1 from metainference simulations.\nHutch inson K\, Silva DB\, Bohlke J\, Clausen C\, Thomas AA\, Bonomi M\, Schles singer A.Biophys J. 2022 Dec 6\;121(23):4476-4491. doi: 10.1016/j.bpj.2022 .11.001.\n\nRational design of ASCT2 inhibitors using an integrated experi mental-computational approach.\nGaribsingh RA\, Ndaru E\, Garaeva AA\, Shi Y\, Zielewicz L\, Zakrepine P\, Bonomi M\, Slotboom DJ\, Paulino C\, Grew er C\, Schlessinger A.Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 Sep 14\;118(37):e210 4093118. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2104093118.\n\nComprehensive Characterization o f LAT1 Cholesterol-Binding Sites.\nHutchinson K\, Schlessinger A.J Chem T heory Comput. 2024 Apr 23\;20(8):3349-3358. doi: 10.1021/acs.jctc.3c01391. Epub 2024 Apr 10.\n\nGenome-wide prediction of pathogenic gain- and loss- of-function variants from ensemble learning of a diverse feature set.\nSte in D\, Kars ME\, Wu Y\, Bayrak ÇS\, Stenson PD\, Cooper DN\, Schlessinge r A\, Itan Y.Genome Med. 2023 Nov 30\;15(1):103. doi: 10.1186/s13073-023-0 1261-9.\n\n \;\n\nGeneral information\n\n Registration is not needed\ , participation list is circulated in the audience\n If you are a student and later wish to get a certificate of attendance from the Frontier of Sc ience seminars\, print out the seminar diary and after the seminar ask the BioCity coordinator to sign it https://seafile.utu.fi/f/0cd08ce7e61b419b8 8cb/\n Please note that any audio or video recording of the seminars is s trictly forbidden.\n Spring 2026 image credits to Jan Kaslin: Motor neuro ns (green) and newly produced cells (red) are organized around the central canal (blue cells surrounding channel that crosses the image) in the adul t zebrafish spinal cord. Image taken using Leica SP8 confocal microscope.\ n\n \; ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://bioscience.fi/wp-content/uploads/2025/11 /fos-spring2026-thumbnail.jpg CATEGORIES:Turku Bioscience Events END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/Helsinki X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/Helsinki BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20251026T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:+0300 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 TZNAME:EET END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR