1st International ESCEC Symposium on Experimental Standard Conditions on Enzyme Characterizations



Oct. 5th - 8th, Ruedesheim, Germany

The scientific program lists all speakers and lecture topics.

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).