First Announcement: 1st International Symposium on Experimental Standard Conditions of Enzyme Characterization

[Carsten Kettner]

First Announcement: 1st Beilstein Symposium on "Experimental Standard
Conditions of Enzyme Characterization"

I am pleased to announce that we will be hosting the first symposium
and workshop "Experimental Standard Conditions of Enzyme
Characterization" in Ruedesheim, Germany on October 5 - 8, 2003.

Functional characterization of enzymes and the subsequent
computational analysis and modelling of the cellular metabolism and
the interaction of cells within tissues and organs led to the
foundation of a new branch within the life sciences, called systems
biology. At this time, data from metabolic simulations show broad
value ranges with high uncertainty because the accessible experimental
data have been generated under non-standardized experimental
conditions. The results from functional characterizations of enzymes
are usually determined by individual laboratory-specific application
and implementation of the experimental design. Thus, successful
biological analysis requires comparable and reliable data from both
enzyme and physiological interactions collected under standardized
experimental conditions. However, as long as the quality of the in-put
as well as the out-going modelling data can not be improved, the
chances of success for this young discipline to escape from the
verbally overused -omics-sciences are poor.

The standardization of the above mentioned experimental conditions -
or rather "recommendations" - firstly needs broad discussions within
the scientific community which hopefully will lead to some common
acceptance so that each researcher will carry out his/her experiments
in accord with these quasi-standards. The Beilstein-Institut supports
this standardization process by hosting the 1st ESCEC workshop and it
is also willing to organize and present the following meetings as long
as this is appropriate. At such time as a self-sufficient working
group has formed, the Institut would look to modify its role and
support this work in other ways. 

This first meeting will address the following questions:
- are any standards used in the field of functional characterization
of enzymes?
- are there any standard procedures or instructions for experimental
conditions?
- is it possible to define laboratory procedures for common use?
- do current repositories for enzyme characterization data meet the
demands of users?
- which data types for metabolic simulations are necessary?
- are there any demands for the transfer of standardized experimental
data to journals or databases?
The aim of this meeting is to confirm the prevailing opinion that the
standardization of experiments and methods for enzyme characterization
is necessary (minimum objective) and that some initial suggestions of
standardized conditions can be presented to the scientific community
by ways of a publication (maximum objective).


See www.beilstein-institut.de --> events --> ESCEC symposium for
detailed information or please contact me at the eMail address given
in the header.

Sincerely,

Carsten Kettner