We would like to invite industry partners that are interested in contributing to this perstigious international event to join us in the organization and present their activity dueing the conference.

For the official announcement and our offer, please have a look at our official page dedicated to sponsors page

Considering the Catholic and Orthodox Easter Holidays the period for early registration and abstract submission has been extended until April 30 2026

The winner of the 2026 ISQBP Award in Computational Biology is Dr. Modesto Orozco for his outstanding scientific contributions to decoding DNA structure and dynamics at multiple scales and in different genomic contexts.

Graduate (M.Sc.) in Chemistry from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (1985). PhD in Biochemistry from the same university (1990). Pre-Doctoral research fellow of the Spanish MEC. Departament de Bioquímica - Universitat de Barcelona (1987-1989). Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at the same university (1989-1990). Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Departament de Bioquímica. Universitat de Barcelona. 1991-2001. Invited Scientist. Department of Chemistry. Yale University 1991-1993. Full Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Departament de Bioquímica. Universitat de Barcelona 2002-present. Director Molecular Modelling and Bioinformatics Unit (2002-) IRB Barcelona. Director of the Life Sciences Department. Barcelona Supercomputing Center (2005-2015). Integrative Research Node coordinator IRB Barcelona.

Counsellor and Advisor of different Scientific Societies and Granting Agencies. Associated Editor WIRES Computational Molecular Sciences. Advisory Editor of Theoretical Chemistry Accounts: Theory, Computation and Modelling (2005-2014). Member of the Editorial board of: Journal of Computational Chemistry, Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, Phys.Chem.Chem.Phys., J.Mol.Recog., J. Mol.Graphics and Modeling, Nucleic Acids Res., and Chem.

Modesto Orozco’s research activity is focused on the theoretical study of biological systems and is reflected in close to 500 papers published in international peer-reviewed journals of the highest impact His publications have collected more than 35000 citations with an h-index of 93, the highest for a computational chemist in Spain.

Among other awards, in 1997 he got the “Diaz de Santos” National Award for young scientist, the Distinción Investigadora de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Annual award of Science of the Catalan Science Ministry) in 2000, the FEBS Anniversary Prize of the Gesellschaft für Biochemie und Molekularbiologie in 2001, the Fundación Marcelino Botín fellowship (2007), the Brucker award for research in biophysics (2010), as well as the ICREA Academy award for excellence in research and the Advanced Grant of the European Research Council.

Modesto Orozco is founder and president of Nostrum Biodiscovery.

The 2026 ISQBP Gilda Loew Lecture is awarded to Dr. Zoe Cournia for her outstanding contributions in various scientific topics which were at the core of Gilda Loew’s interests.

Dr. Cournia is Director of Research at the Biomedical Research Foundation, Academy of Athens. She graduated from the Chemistry Department, University of Athens in 2001 and received her PhD at the University of Heidelberg in Germany in 2006. She then worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Chemistry Department, Yale University, USA, on computer-aided drug design with Prof. Bill Jorgensen. She has been awarded with the American Association for Cancer Research Angiogenesis Fellowship (2008), the “Woman of Innovation 2009” Award from the Connecticut Technology Council, USA, the Marie Curie Fellowship from the European Union (2010), the “Outstanding Junior Faculty Award” from the American Chemical Society (2014) and the first “Ada Lovelace Award” from the “Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe” (2016). She was a member of the Infrastructure Advisory Group (INFRAG) of the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking in 2018-2021 and in 2022 she was appointed as the Greek representative in the Innovative Health Initiative Joint Undertaking. She is an Executive Editor with the Journal of Chemical information and Modeling, American Chemical Society and the national representative of Greece in the Division of Computational and Theoretical Chemistry in the European Chemical Society.

The Molecular Modeling in Chemistry and Biochemistry Conference MOLMOD will take place right after the ISQBP President’s meeting from Thursday 18.06 to Saturday 20.06.

For details please consult the link

Everyone attending the ISQBP President’s meeting who is interested in this Romanian sattelite meeting is welcome to register for it and participate.

The list of confirmed speakers has been published and the registration for the meeting is now open. Early registration and abstract submission is possibile until April 1st 2026

A brief history of the Babeș-Bolyai University can be found here

Other prestigious universities relevant for the topics the ISQBP conference located in Cluj-Napoca are the Medical University, the Technical University, and the University of Agricultural Science and Veterinary Medicine

For a brief dive into the history of the city which dates back to the ancient Roman settlement of Napoca please look here

Nowadays the city is a vibrant student city with a total of 11 universities and over 100000 students. Cluj-Napoca combines ancient history with modern atmosphere and has become one of the most livable cities in Romania (if not the most). It has a reach and diverse cultural scene including museums, movie and theater festivals, alternative cinemas, live music and many restaurants, terraces, caffees and bars. It also has a well developed netowrk of public transport. With these developments, the prices have risen quite sharply in recent years and although it is still cheaper than most similar cities in the western Europe, the gap is far smaller than it used to be. Cluj-Napoca is probably now the most expensive city in Romania.

Distinguished by ISQBP with the Award in Computational Biology

Affiliation

IRB Barcelona, Spain

A Journey Through DNA

Abstract

DNA is the carrier of genetic information and perhaps the molecule that best defines life as we know it. Yet, for me, it is something more: a fascinating physical problem in which multiple time and length scales coexist. In DNA, biology emerges from a myriad of sub-ångström details that ultimately map onto a meter-long molecular fiber. Approaching DNA from the perspective of physics requires integrating multiple levels of resolution within a coherent framework. This is a formidable challenge: it demands navigating across different physical models while incorporating experimental measurements at the core of theoretical and computational approaches. In this talk, I will summarize our experience over several decades developing tools to simulate nucleic acids, with special emphasis on DNA. I will also share my enthusiasm for how the next generation of methods may allow us to decipher, with increasing clarity, the fundamental molecular principles underlying life.

Distinguished by ISQBP with the Gilda Loew Lectureship

Affiliation

Biomedical Research Foundation, Academy of Athena, Greece - Research

Allostery in Drug Discovery: From MD to ML

Abstract

Affiliation

University of Florida, USA - Roitberg Group

10+ years of General Machine Learning Interaction Potentials. Ubi eramus? Ubi sumus? Quo imus?

Abstract

When one wants to work in a field where it is important to sample molecular conformations according to a distribution (e.g. Boltzmann), the standard view has been that one can either sample properly (i.e keep many structures, for which you need cheap computational methods) OR have accurate weights (i.e. Good energy calculations, which are expensive), but never both.

This general idea goes back to Dirac, who in 1929 wrote that we (theoretical physicists) need to design methods that are computationally tractable, but as accurate as possible.

In the early 2000’s, a idea came to life asking: “Can a machine learning method learn quantum chemistry?” More precisely, can it learn and predict energies and forces for molecular systems with the same accuracy as actual QM calculations ? Surprisingly, the answer was YES, for a given molecular system. This enables the breaking of the problem described above. One could calculate energies very accurately, but at a very low cost, which enabled sampling !

In 2016 my group asked the follow up question: Can an ML method learn to predict energies and forces for ANY substance, given enough data ? The answer was again, yes! We showed that one can create a Neural Network that can learn from a large dataset of diverse structures, and predict E and F with high accuracy for compounds outside the training dataset.

I will present some of the history of the field (Ubi eramus? ), show some our more recent results (Ubi sumus? ), and discuss some ideas as to where we might be going (Quo imus?”).

Affiliation

Computer-Aided Drug Design Center, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, 21230, USA

Ongoing developments in the Classical Drude Oscillator Polarizable Force Field.

Abstract

The Drude polarizable force field (FF) uses a simple auxiliary particle, the Drude oscillator, linked via a harmonic spring to the nuclei of non-hydrogen atoms to model the electrons in the system. The induced polarization response is modelled by the Drude particles relaxing in the surrounding electric field for each configuration of the real atoms, thereby solving the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. While conceptually simple, this model allows for accurate treatment of electronic polarization in a computationally efficient manner, with a 2.6 to 4-fold increase in computational costs over additive force fields. Drude FF parameters have now been developed for proteins, nucleic acids, selected lipids and carbohydrates as well as a range of cofactors and drug-like molecules. Ongoing efforts involve improving the treatment of the protein and nucleic acids, including the equilibrium between folded and unfolded states and their interactions with their environments. In addition, efforts are focused on the development of the Drude General Force Field (DGenFF) for small molecules.