Best Poster Award at the 2025 ICB&DD Symposium Xiaowei Bogetti

Congratulations to Xiaowei Bogetti, a member of the Bahar Lab, for receiving the Best Poster Award at the 19th Annual ICB&DD Symposium held on October 2, 2025, at the Charles B. Wang Center, Stony Brook University.

Her work, “smFRET/DEER-guided Modeling of Protein Conformational Dynamics for Rational Drug Design” introduces FRETDy, a computational tool integrating experimental and modeling approaches to better understand protein conformational dynamics for drug discovery. 

Title: smFRET/DEER-guided Modeling of Protein Conformational Dynamics for Rational Drug Design

Abstract: Proteins shift between different shapes to perform their functions. This dynamic process is vital for drug discovery, allowing us to target specific, functionally relevant states. However, it is challenging to capture the full range of a protein's motions. Two experimental techniques, single-molecule Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (smFRET) and DEER, are often used to characterize conformational changes by reporting distances between labels. However, only sparse distance constraints can be obtained, which often require computational modeling to translate these distances into protein conformations. In my poster, I described the development of a new tool, FRETDy, which integrates experimental distances and Elastic Network Models to sample unresolved protein states. This approach provides a more complete view of a protein's dynamic landscape, enabling the rational design of targeted and effective drugs.

Xiaowei Bogetti with Dr. Ivet Bahar and other award recipients at 19th Annual ICB&DD Symposium