Jarek and Julia escape winter at the ML4NGP Training School in Seville! 🧬🤖🌞🇪🇸

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arek and Julia attended the ML4NGP Training School in Seville 🇪🇸, learning about machine learning for non-globular proteins 🧬🤖 and temporarily escaping the -15°C Polish winter for a pleasant +16°C Spanish spring 🌞

This winter, two brave BioGenies, Jarek and Julia, embarked on a scientific expedition to Seville, Spain 🇪🇸, where they attended the ML4NGP Training School: Introduction to Machine Learning for Non-globular Proteins.

The trip started in proper Polish fashion:
❄️ -15°C in Białystok and Warsaw
➡️ a few hours later
🌞 +16°C in Seville

We suspect the machine learning models were not the only things warming up during the training school 🌞🌞🌞

🧠 Machine learning meets protein chaos

The training school is part of the ML4NGP COST Action, a European network exploring how machine learning can help understand non-globular proteins. Especially intrinsically disordered proteins and other flexible molecular troublemakers.

During several intense days of lectures and hands-on sessions, participants explored topics such as:

  • 🤖 machine learning methods for biological data
  • 🧬 prediction of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs)
  • 🧪 integrating experimental and computational datasets
  • 📊 evaluating ML models and avoiding common pitfalls

Plenty of notebooks were executed and questions asked, exactly what a proper training school should look like.

🌍 Science, networking… and Spanish sunshine

Besides learning, the event was also a fantastic opportunity to meet other researchers:

  • 🤝 exchanging ideas with fellow ML4NGP members
  • 💡 discussing new approaches for studying protein disorder and aggregation
  • ☕ having those classic “conference coffee break breakthroughs”

And of course, doing all that while enjoying Seville’s February sunshine 🌞, something that felt almost surreal after leaving a frozen Poland.

🧬 Bringing new ideas back to BioGenies

Training schools like this are an important part of the ML4NGP COST Action, helping early-career researchers gain practical skills and build collaborations across Europe.

Jarek and Julia returned with:

  • 🧠 new ideas
  • 🧬 knowledge about simulation tools like CALVADOS
  • 📚 plenty of notes
  • 🌞 and probably a mild shock when remembering what Polish winter feels like