Symposium: AI at the Frontiers of Protein Science for Agriculture
Wednesday, Dec. 1 and Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021
Symposium goals
- Provide an overview of recent computational advances in protein research and potential applications of these new methods.
- Learn about protein-related research currently happening at ARS.
- Identify new opportunities for AI-powered, protein-related research at ARS.
- Identify potential working groups and next steps to advance protein science at ARS.
Symposium agenda
Wednesday, December 1, 2021 (all times are EST)
| Time |
Activity |
| 10:45 AM |
Symposium introduction |
| 11:00 AM |
Keynote presentation: John Moult (Fellow, Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research and Professor, University of Maryland): An AI Solution to the Computational Grand Challenge Problem of Protein Folding |
| 12:00 PM |
Lightning talks: Protein science at ARS
- Carson Andorf (Corn Insects and Crop Genetics Research Unit): Gaining structural and functional insights in biological networks through machine learning
- Man-yeon Choi (Horticultural Crops Research Unit): GPCR Modeling and Interference for Insecticide Discovery
- Douglas Luster (Foreign Disease-Weed Science Research Unit): Proteomics-based discovery of targets for plant pathogen diagnostics
- Walter Schmidt (Environmental Microbial & Food Safety Laboratory): Dipeptide conformation and dynamics: ALA-PRO versus PRO-ALA.
- Brenda Oppert (Stored Product Insect and Engineering Research Unit): Adaptation of Cysteine Peptidases in Tenebrionid Insects for Efficient Digestion of Cereal Proteins
- Jianchi Chen (Crop Diseases, Pests and Genetics Research Unit): Characterization of fastidious prokaryotes from gene sequences to 3-D protein structures
|
| 1:00 PM |
Break |
| 1:30 PM |
Keynote presentation: Darrell Hurt (Branch Chief, Bionformatics Branch at National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases): AI for Protein Science: Evolution and Revolution |
| 2:30 PM |
Lightning talks: Protein science at ARS
- Ming-shun Chen (Hard Winter Wheat Genetics Research Unit): Insect Effector Proteins in Plant - Insect Interactions
- Chris Mattison (Food Processing and Sensory Quality Research Unit): In silico Docking of Monoclonal Antibodies to the Immunodominant Cashew Nut Allergen Ana o 3
- Adalberto Perez de Leon (San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center): Untangling functional secrets in the structure of proteins from pest disease vectors
- Adam Rivers (Genomics and Bioinformatics Research Unit): Improving food allergy diagnostics with de novo protein structure prediction, peptide arrays and 3D convolutional neural networks
- David Schneider (Animal Disease Research Unit): Prions: self-replicating aggregates of misfolded cellular protein
- Soheila Maleki (Food Processing and Sensory Quality Research Unit): Microarray-based identification of antibody binding sites on allergic proteins from peanuts and tree nuts
- Clifton Fagerquist (Produce Safety and Microbiology Research Unit): Top-down proteomic identification of proteins of foodborne pathogens
|
| 3:30 PM |
Break |
| 3:45 PM |
Group discussion: What have we learned from today's presentations? |
| 4:00 PM |
Breakout groups: What topics or questions should we address in part 2 of the conference? |
| 4:30 PM |
Breakout group reporting, setting the agenda for part 2 of the conference |
| 5:30 PM |
Adjourn |
Thursday, December 2 (tentative; all times are EST)
Please note that the schedule for day 2 is tentative. The final schedule will depend on the outcomes of day 1 and any adjustments required during day 2.
| Time |
Activity |
| 10:45 AM |
Introduction and logistics, brief introduction to SCINet resources |
| 11:00 AM |
Group discussion: What new science do these tools make possible? |
| 11:45 PM |
Break |
| 12:00 PM |
Breakout groups: Science-focused discussions |
| 12:30 PM |
Breakout group reporting, group discussion |
| 1:15 PM |
Conference concludes; groups are welcome to continue discussions if they wish |
SCINet Scientific Computing