Instituto de Química Orgánica General

This course which was held from 21 to 25 September 2015, has been organized by the the Universidad de la República (Uruguay) and coordinated by Dr. Daniela Gamenara. The course has emphasized enzymatic reactions not only in terms of its synthetic efficiency but also in terms of its regio- and stereoselectivity. The focus has been entirely interdisciplinary, covering aspects of synthesis, design and cloning strategies and expression of enzymes, and has finished with a bioinformatics workshop to deepen the fundamental contents of the course. About thirty students from Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay have participated in this edition. Complete information about the programme, teachers, etc. can be found here.

The 1^st Spanish Workshop on Biocatalysis (JEB15), was held Madrid from 2-3 July 2015. This meeting was hosted by the CIB-CSIC and organized by the Spanish Society of Biotechnology (SEBiot) as an initiative of the Applied Biocatalysis Section. The conference brought together almost 100 researchers and particularly satisfactory has been the high participation of young researchers. The program was developed in three sessions that have tried to cover the entire area of biocatalysis from synthetic biology to computational description of enzymatic catalysis, through the immobilization of enzymes, use of whole cells as biocatalysts, enzymatic synthesis, etc.

"This Conference —explains Eduardo Garcia-Junceda, president of the Organizing Committee and director of the Institute of Organic Chemistry (IQOG-CSIC)— born with the aim of becoming a national reference  forum in the area, as there is a large number of groups working in this field at academic and industrial level, but we believe it is necessary to promote their interrelation and encourage the development of synergies and partnerships."