CCP4 Study Weekend 2026:

This year the CCP4 Study Weekend will be held as a hybrid event from the 7th – 9th January, enabling people to choose whether to attend in-person or virtually. 

The event will be run over 3 days. Day 1 will encompass the Diamond MX User Meeting starting at 11am.  The main Study Weekend will then begin with a Keynote talk followed by a discussion panel engaging with the audience on the topic “Experimental protein-ligand determination in the age of AF”.  

The subsequent 2 days will follow the usual format with 3 sessions each day. Old favourites like “What’s New in CCP4?” and “Lunchtime Bytes” will also appear each day (see programme for more details). 

A poster session will also be taking place this year on the evening of the first day allowing students to present their research to the wider crystallographic community. 

***2026 will also see the return of the last year’s ceilidh band “Knitter’s Jig” after the conference dinner on day 2 for all those who want to join in. See the Social Programme here******** 

NEW THIS YEAR – BURSARIES FOR ACTIVE RETIRED / EMERITUS SCIENTISTS TO ATTEND THE IN-PERSON EVENT. SEE FEES PAGE FOR MORE DETAILS

In keeping with previous CCP4 meetings, the lectures will focus on the presentation and discussion of a variety of methods and techniques developed and used by the leaders in the field. 

This year, the topic for the Study Weekend is “Ligands in Focus: Decoding Ligand Binding in Modern Structural Biology“.  

The aim of this year’s meeting is to highlight innovative methods and workflows for ligand analysis and drug discovery, from high-throughput and structural approaches to advanced computation and AI. 

 Programme 

Sessions will cover: 

Day 1 

• Diamond MX User Meeting from 11am 
• Session 1: 
  • Keynote talk 
  • Panel Discussion – Experimental protein-ligand determination in the age of AF 
  • Networking event including poster session
    

Day 2 

• Session 2: Innovative Approaches to Structure-based Drug Design. 
• Session 3: Advanced Methods for Ligand Analysis: From Quantum Mechanics to  Molecular Dynamics. 
• Session 4: High throughput Crystallography for Ligand Design. 
  Conference dinner followed by Ceilidh by “Knitter’s Jig”, Board Game café and Dance-mat Video Games. 

Day 3 

• Session 5: Challenges in Ligand analysis and Validation. 
• Session 6: AI in Drug Discovery. 
• Session 7: Next-Generation Ligand Workflows: From Fragment Design to Deposition. 

Scientific Organisers: 

• Lucrezia Catapano (UKRI-MRC-LMB, UK) 
• Tobias Krojer (MAX IV, Sweden)  
• Stephanie Wankowicz (Vanderbilt University, USA)