13th POSLATAM Course
4th ICTP-SAIFR Symposium
Current Topics in Molecular Biophysics
October 17th to 19th 2026
Format: Lectures and guided discussions
Target audience: Graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and early-career researchers in biophysics, physics, chemistry, biology, and related fields.
Rationale and Objectives
The proposed course arises from a joint effort between the LAFeBS’s Latin American Postgraduate Program in Biophysics (POSLATAM) and the International Centre for Theoretical Physics-South American Institute for Fundamental Research (ICTP-SAIFR). Both Institutions will join forces to bring together a diverse group of experts and students with different backgrounds.
The ICTP-SAIFR Symposium and POSLATAM Course on Current Topics in Molecular Biophysics aims to gather international experts and young researchers in the field to discuss recent advances and challenges. Molecular Biophysics encompasses a wide range of topics, from structural biology to computational methods, offering insights into fundamental biological processes. This workshop serves as a platform for knowledge exchange and collaboration among researchers from diverse backgrounds.
The course will span three days, featuring presentations by speakers and interactive sessions. In addition to the invited talks, there will be talks selected from abstracts, and there will be a poster session. As with previous ICTP-SAIFR and POSLATAM activities, we aim to foster an informal atmosphere where participants at all levels can exchange and develop ideas together.
Preliminary Program
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Tentative topics to be covered
Genome architecture and large assemblies. Geometric diagrams of genomes. Dynamic features of genome organization. Pangenome analysis. Thermodynamics and kinetics of biomolecular assemblies and molecular motors. Maximum entropy polymer models.
Biomolecular condensates. Condensates formation and dynamics: the role of intrinsically disordered regions, RNA–protein interactions and post-translational modifications. Key experimental methodologies to explore liquid-liquid phase separation. Pathological phase transitions and the relevance of condensates to neurodegeneration, cancer, and other diseases
Computational methods. The PDBe-knowledge base (PDBe-KB) consortium and the AlphaFold protein structure database. Simulation-driven design in drug discovery. Structure-based simulations of ribosome dynamics and whole virus particles. Computational modeling of biomolecular phase separation.
The final program will be available as soon as we have confirmed the speakers and the titles of the talks.
Relevance and Impact
This short course will contribute to advanced training in an area of rapidly growing importance, equipping young researchers with a modern conceptual toolkit to address complex problems in cell biology and biophysics. By fostering an interdisciplinary perspective, the course aligns with current efforts to integrate physical sciences approaches into biological research and graduate education.
Venue
The ICTP South American Institute for Fundamental Research (ICTP-SAIFR) is a South American Regional Center in the city of São Paulo created in a collaboration between the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), the Instituto de Fisica Teorica (IFT) of São Paulo State University (UNESP), and the São Paulo Research Funding Agency (FAPESP). This Institute was initiated in a Memorandum of Understanding signed in Trieste in November 2010 by the ICTP and UNESP directors. The ICTP-SAIFR is located in the Instituto de Física Teórica (IFT-UNESP) building on the Barra Funda campus of UNESP. Its activities are modelled following those of the ICTP and include schools, workshops, and outreach.