December 5

(Morning: 9-12.30am)

Chairman: P. Fasella

Rapporteur: R. Hancock

Introduction

P. Laggner, Use of synchrotron radiation for the study of membranes and their interaction with perturbing agents

First Session: Antimicrobial peptides in insects, amphibia and mammals

J.A.Hoffman, Antimicrobial peptides in the immune response of Drosophila

D.Marchini, Ceratotoxins: new antimicrobial peptides from the medfly

D.Barra, Structure and function of antimicrobial peptides from amphibian skin

R.I. Lehrer, Protegrins: antimicrobial and cytotoxic properties

M.Zanetti, The cathelicidin family of antimicrobial peptides: structural and biological aspects

General Discussion

(Afternoon:2-5.30pm)

Chairman: D. Romeo

Rapporteur: S.H. White

Second Session: Targets and mechanism of action

R. Gennaro, Antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities of cathelicidin-derived peptides and analogues

H. Boman, Chemical groups of antibacterial peptides and what do we know about their targets

R. Hancock, Interaction of cationic antimicrobial peptides with bacterial membranes: are all peptides the same?

Y. Shai, How do antimicrobial peptides kill bacteria and not normal mammalian cells? Structure-function study

K. Matsuzaki, Interactions of magainin peptides with membranes

R.Epand, Lytic peptides and the physical properties of membranes

L. Rivas, Interaction of cecropin A - mellitin hybrid peptide with plasma membranes of Leishmania donovain

K. Lohner, Liposomes, a multi-purpose approach to mimic the target membranes for antimicrobial peptides

General Discussion

Visit to the Elettra Laboratory

December 6

(Morning:9-12.30am)

Chairman: R.I. Lehrer

Rapporteur:Y. Shai

Third Session:Biophysical properties and design of antimicrobial peptides

T. Wieprecht, Influence of the angle subtended by the positively charged helix face on the membrane activity of amphipathic, antibacterial peptides

M. Dathe, The role of hydrophobicity, hydrophobic moment and size of the hydrophobic domain of amphipathic helical peptides for the interaction with lipid bilayers and biological membranes

S.H.White, Toxins and peptides in membranes: mechanism of secondary structure formation

S.Blondelle, Synthetic combinatorial libraries: large sources for novel antimicrobial agents

A.Tossi, Design of synthetic antimicrobial peptides based on sequence analogy and amphipathicity, and their interaction with bacterial membranes

R. Nagaraj, Design and engineering of antibacterial peptides composed of 13-18 residues

A. Chavanieu,Structure-activity relationship of Protegrins

E. Odell, Function of structural analogues of lactoferricin

General Discussion

(Afternoon:2-5pm)

Chairman: H. Boman

Rapporteur: R.Gennaro

Fourth Session:Specificity of antibacterial activity; antimicrobial peptides from bacteria

M.Simmaco, Differential activity of antimicrobial peptides from amphibian skin against bacteria of the natural flora

C. Chang, The identification and properties of protegrin analog IB-367

H.-G. Sahl, Biological activities and structure-function analysis of selected lantibiotics

A.Ballio, Bioactive lipodepsipeptides from Pseudomonas

R.McElhany, The selective interaction of the antimicrobial cyclic dodecapeptide gramicidin S with phospholipid bilayers

G. Menestrina, Interaction of Pseudomonas lipodepsipeptides with model lipid membranes

Round table discussion (Chairman: K. Lohner)

Synchrotron radiation for the study of the mechanism of action of the antimicrobial peptides:future prospects