To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the APD, Drs.Gus Wang, Monique L. van Hoek, and Chuck Bevins chaired a hybrid symposium Antimicrobial Peptides: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow in Omaha, Nebraska on Oct 6, 2023. Over 180 students, postdoctoral scholars and faculty from around the world participated in the meeting. We thank you all for your participation and contributions.
Dr. Wang has updated this web page to allow you to re-play the recorded videos from this conference, visit the conference posters, and view the published papers in the Special Issue on Antimicrobial Peptides.
(1)**** APD 20 Symposium, Oct 2023, Omaha, USA****
The videos from the 2023 antimicrobial peptide symposium can be viewed via the following links:
Openning Remarks
Opening remarks by Dr. Kenneth W. Bayles, Dr. Joseph D. Khoury, and Robert E W.Hancock;
Session I: Database, Design and Prediction of Antimicrobial Peptides
Keynote lecture of Dr. Guangshun Wang (University of Nebraska Medical Center, USA), The antimicrobial peptide database as a founding resource for antimicrobial development;
Lecture of Dr. Gajendra Raghava (Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, India), Machine learning based models for designing therapeutic peptides from the antimicrobial peptide databas;
Lecture of Dr. Jun Wang (Chinese Academy of Sciences, China), Deep learning prediction of antimicrobial peptides from human gut microbiome.
Session II: Promising Antimicrobial Leads and Mechanism of Action
Keynote lecture of Dr. Kim Lewis (Northeastern University, USA), Novel peptide antibiotics with unusual modes of action;
Lecture of Dr. Berthony Deslouches (University of Pittsburgh, USA), Precision design of cationic peptides to overcome bacterial resistance to conventional antibiotics;
Lecture of Dr. Evan Haney (Asep Medical, Canada), Development of AMPs into antibiofilm agents: An industrial view;
Lecture of Dr. Michael Wenzel (Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden), Membrane active antimicrobial peptides: Beyond pore-forming;
Lecture of Dr. Renee Fleeman (University of South Florida, USA), Breaking the Barrier: Polyproline Peptides Disrupt the Matrix of Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae Biofilms to Release Bacteria from their Protective Barrier.
Special Event: NIAID/NIH grantsmanship
Lecture of Dr. Sandip Bhattacharyya (Scientific Review Officer, NIAID, NIH)
Session III: Microbiota, Antimicrobial Peptides and Human Diseases
Keynote lecture of Dr. Nita Salzman (Medical College of Wisconsin, USA), The microbiota-antimicrobial peptide axis and novel antimicrobial strategies;
Lecture of Dr. Bruno Lemaitre (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland), A humoral stress response protects Drosophila self-tissues from antimicrobial peptides;
Lecture of Dr. Delphine Destoumieux-Garzon (University Perpignan Via Domitia, France), Salt-resistant big defensins regulate oyster microbiota;
Lecture of Dr. Bart Thomma (University of Cologne, Germany), Antimicrobial peptides shape plant microbiota;
Lecture of Dr. Eugene B. Chang (University of Chicago, USA), A new class of Paneth cell antimicrobial peptides that maintain Candida gut commensalism and innate immunity.
Session IV: Sunlight, vitamin D, Human cathelicidin and Antimicrobial Role
Keynote lecture of Dr. John H. White (McGill University, Canada), Vitamin D, human LL-37 and the antiviral connection;
Lecture of Dr. Jingwei Xie (University of Nebraska Medical Center, USA), Topical delivery of immunomodulating compounds and LL-37 derived peptides for wound management;
Lecture of Dr. Nuch Tanphaichitr (University of Ottawa, Canada), Development of human LL-37 and related peptides into a spermicide/microbicide.
Acknowledgement: We thank Drs. Ken Bayles, Joe Khoury, and Bob Hancock for introductions and all the speakers for overcoming the time difference and giving excellent lectures. Thanks also go to Drs. Monique L. van Hoek and Chuck Bevins for helping chairing this meeting. We are in debt to Lyssa White for spending extra time to edit the videos and make them available to the public. This event was supported by Dr. Joe Khoury, professor, chair, Department of pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) as well as the department supporting team, especially Lyssa White, Liz VanRoekel, Kirsten Stites, Keith Young, and Liz Tierney.
(2)****The APD 20 Symposium Posters**** can be viewed here.
(3)****Special Issue on Antimicrobial Peptides****: Some published papers can be viewed in Peptides.
For suggestions, contributions and donations, please contact Dr. Wang (email: gwang@unmc.edu).