7th – 9th January 2026
Diamond User meeting
11:00-11:05
Welcome by DUC representatives
Colin Levy – University of Manchester (UK), Sam Horrell – Imperial College London (UK)
11:05 – 11:25
Challenging Samples
11:25 – 11:45
Small Crystals
11:45 – 12:05
Proteins in Motion
12:05 – 12:20
Flash beamline updates
12:20 – 13:10
Lunch
13:10 – 13:30
Focusing on the Science
13:30 – 13:50
The Diamond MX Pipeline
13:50 – 14:10
What’s my ligand?
14:10 – 14:25
Flash beamline Updates
14:25 – 14:50
Coffee break
14:50 – 15:10
Making the most of the green ticks
15:10 – 15:15
Flash Beamline updates
15:15 – 15:25
Training Opportunities
Adam Crawshaw
Diamond Light Source, UK
15:25 – 15:35
General MX update
Dave Hall
Diamond Light Source, UK
15:35 – 16:00
DUC Discussion
Colin Levy – University of Manchester (UK), Sam Horrell – Imperial College London (UK)
16:00 – 17:30
Break
16:00 – 17:30
CCP4 WG1 meeting
Session 1
17:30 – 18:15
Key note talk – Emerging opportunities and challenges in target-directed cancer drug discovery
Rob van Montfort
The Institute of Cancer Research, UK
18:15 – 19:00
"Experimental protein-ligand determination in the age of AF" – round table discussion
Dave Brown (Chair) – Vertex (UK), Maria Kadukova – Astex, Pharmaceuticals (UK), Cha-Wa Chung – GSK (UK), Frank von Delft – Diamond Light Source (UK)
19:00 – 23:00
Networking event including street food and poster session
What's new in CCP4?
09:00 – 09:10
What's new in CCP4?
Ville Uski
UKRI-STFC CCP4, UK
09:10 – 09:45
09:45 – 10:00
10:00 – 10:15
10:15 – 10:30
10:30 – 11:00
Break
Session 2
Innovative Approaches to Structure-based Drug Design
11:00 – 11:30
De Novo Protein Design for Drug Discovery
Natalie Tatum
Newcastle University, UK
11:30 – 12:00
Navigating Interactions for Drug Discovery: All ligands great and small (and the in-between macrocycles)
Seth Harris
Genentech, USA
12:00 – 12:30
Leveraging structural biology to drive innovation in epitope mapping and accelerate the rational design of novel Bicycle molecules at Bicycle Therapeutics
Gustavo Bezerra
Bicycle Therapeutics, UK
12:30 – 14:00
Lunch
Lunchtime Bytes – In person only
13:00 – 14:00
Session 3
Advanced Methods for Ligand Analysis: From Quantum Mechanics to Molecular Dynamics
14:00 – 14:30
Quantum methods for ligand analysis – Novel tool for ligand analysis by using QM calculations
Filipe Menezes
Helmholtz Centre Munich, GERMANY
14:30 – 15:00
Emerging methods for ligand validation
Dorothee Liebschner
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA
15:00 – 15:30
Molecular dynamics for ligand binding
Phil Biggin
University of Oxford, UK
15:30 – 16:00
Break
Session 4
High throughput Crystallography for Ligand Design
16:00 – 16:30
Fragment screening in drug discovery
Ailsa Powell
Diamond Light Source, UK
16:30 – 17:00
Novel screening methods
Daniela Trivella
LNBio, BRAZIL
17:00 – 17:30
Serial crystallography in drug discovery
Gisela Bränden
University of Gothenburg, SWEDEN
17:30 – 18:00
Multiple datasets and ligand
Nicholas Pearce
Linkoping University, SWEDEN
18:00 – 19:00
Break
19:00 – 00:00
Conference Dinner + social including Ceilidh, Board Games café and Dance mat Video Games
Session 5
Challenges in Ligand analysis and Validation
09:00 – 09:30
FoXSight: A Novel Tool for Facilitated Hit Identification in Crystallographic Compound Screening Experiments
Thorben Schulze
University of Hamburg, GERMANY
09:30 – 10:00
Validating weak ligand binding
Frank Kozielski
University College London, UK
10:00 – 10:30
Crystallographic screening and conformational landscapes
Doeke Hekstra
Harvard University, USA
10:30 – 11:00
Break
Session 6
AI in Drug Discovery
11:00 – 11:30
OpenBind: Unlocking Protein-Ligand Binding Prediction
Fergus Imrie
University of Oxford, UK
11:30 – 12:00
Ligand structure prediction
Frank DiMaio
University of Washington, USA
12:00 – 12:30
Application of AI for covalent inhibitors screening
Nir London
Weizmann Institute of Science, ISRAEL
12:30 – 13:00
Lunch
Lunchtime Bytes – In person only
13:00 – 14:00
Session 7
Next-Generation Ligand Workflows: From Fragment Design to Deposition
14:00 – 14:30
PDBe-KB Ligands: An aggregated view of ligands in the PDB
Ibrahim Roshan Kunnakkattu
PDBe, UK
14:30 – 15:00
Industry perspectives on large-scale data
Gustavo Lima
Astex Pharmaceuticals, UK
15:00 – 15:30
Emerging methods in structural data automation
Melanie Oelker
Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, GERMANY
15:30 – 16:00
Round up and close
Scientific Organisers
