Dr Rosalin Bonetta, a post-doctoral research support officer at the Centre of Molecular Medicine and Biobanking at the University of Malta, recently attended two Training Schools that were organised by two separate COST Actions. The first training school entitled, 'Theory and practice in Spectroscopy and Electrochemistry', was organised by COST Action CM1305 (Explicit Control Over Spin-states in Technology and Biochemistry) and held in the Zernike university campus, Groningen (Netherlands) in July. Theoretical as well as practical hands-on laboratory sessions were held on topics ranging from DFT methods, electrochemistry, multidimensional NMR spectroscopy, Mössbauer spectroscopy as well as EPR spectroscopy.
The second training school was entitled, 'Hybrid approaches to describing molecular machines: An introduction to Molecular modeling for the experimentalist' was organised by COST Action CM1306 (Understanding Movement and Mechanism in Molecular Machines) and held in the Medical University of Vienna in August. The topics covered during this training school included molecular dynamics, protein structure analysis and integration into experimental design, homology modelling of proteins and docking techniques to predict complexes.
An essential aspect of these training schools is the networking opportunity provided, since it was possible to discuss scientific issues with scientists and meet future colleagues on an international level. Dr Bonetta presented a poster and is also a substitute management committee member representing Malta for COST Action CM1305. She carries out research in the field of structural biology under the mentorship of Dr Thérèse Hunter and Prof. Gary Hunter (Laboratory of Biochemistry and Protein Science, Department of Physiology and Biochemistry).