The Department of Chemistry at Istanbul Technical University has joined the newly established COST Action DYNAMO (CA25160) through the appointment of Dr. Berna Doğan as a member of the Management Committee (MC), representing Türkiye. DYNAMO is a pan-European research network that brings together experts from diverse disciplines to investigate membrane protein dynamics and develop innovative strategies for designing modulators of their functional conformations.
Membrane proteins play central roles in numerous biological processes and constitute the largest class of therapeutic targets. Their structural flexibility and complex conformational landscapes, however, present major challenges for drug discovery. DYNAMO aims to address these challenges by integrating expertise from structural biology, computational chemistry, medicinal chemistry, biophysics, pharmacology, and artificial intelligence to accelerate the discovery of new therapeutic strategies targeting membrane proteins.
Dr. Doğan has been involved in the DYNAMO community since the Action's preparatory phase, participating in networking meetings prior to its official approval. Following the launch of the Action, she was appointed by Türkiye as one of its representatives on the Management Committee, where she will contribute both to the strategic coordination of the network and to its scientific activities.
Within the Action, Dr. Doğan is a member of the Working Group "New strategies for the design of modulators of functional membrane protein conformations." Her research focuses on integrating computational chemistry, molecular simulations, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to support structure-based drug discovery. Through DYNAMO, she aims to contribute these computational approaches to multidisciplinary collaborations focused on the discovery of innovative membrane protein modulators.
Participation in the Management Committee also provides new opportunities for Istanbul Technical University to strengthen its presence within the European research ecosystem. The network offers a collaborative platform for establishing interdisciplinary partnerships, participating in scientific workshops and Training Schools, supporting researcher mobility through Short-Term Scientific Missions (STSMs), and facilitating knowledge exchange between computational and experimental scientists.
An important objective of Dr. Doğan's participation is to increase the visibility of AI-assisted drug discovery research conducted at ITU within the European scientific community. She also aims to encourage the active involvement of graduate students and early-career researchers in COST activities, creating new opportunities for international networking, scientific training, and collaborative research.
In the longer term, participation in DYNAMO is expected to contribute to the development of new European research partnerships and collaborative project proposals. By combining expertise in computational drug discovery with a multidisciplinary international research network, ITU Chemistry continues to strengthen its international visibility and expand its role in collaborative research addressing important challenges in modern drug discovery.