College of Medicine
University of Nebraska Medical Center
University of Nebraska Medical Center

2026 Antimicrobial Peptide Conference

Antimicrobial Peptides: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow II

The 2026 antimicrobial peptide conference was held Oct. 19 at UNMC. A total of 228 people from the U.S. and 32 other countries registered for the Zoom event, hosted by the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology and featuring presentations from leading figures in antimicrobial peptide research from around the world. Conference chairs were Guangshun "Gus" Wang, Chuck Bevins and Monique van Hoek.

Conference Presentations

 

Session I: Discovery, design and applications of AMPs

  • Kai Hilpert (City St George's, University of London, UK), Discovery of serum-synergistic antimicrobial peptides (SeSy-AMPs) against multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli using spot synthesis and AI
  • Colin Hill (University College Cork, Ireland), Bacterial lantibiotics as antibiotics?
  • Maria Luisa Mangoni (Universita La Sapienza, Italy), Derivatives of the amphibian peptide Esculentin-1a: From antimicrobial activity to multifunctional potential for therapeutic applications
  • Karin Thevissen (Centre of Microbial and Plant Genetics, Belgium), Plant defensins: Discovery and applications

Session II: History of antimicrobial peptide discovery

  • Michael Zasloff (Georgetown University, USA), My discovery of magainins and their translational research experiences
  • Tomas Ganz (University of California Los Angeles, USA), The discovery of human alpha-defensins
  • Charles L. Bevins (University of California Davis, USA), Reflections on defensin discoveries
  • Robert Hancock (University of British Columbia, Canada), Host defense peptides: My perspective

Session III: AI prediction of antimicrobial peptides

  • Cesar de la Fuente (University of Pennsylvania, USA), Accelerating antibiotic discovery with AI
  • Monique van Hoek (George Mason University, USA), Peptide sensing and phenotypic escape: D-GATR-3, GraRS and Trailing Susceptibility in MRSA
  • Octavio Luiz Franco (Universidade Catolica Dom Bosco, Brazil), In silico discovery of antimicrobial peptides
  • Inanc Birol (University of British Columbia, Canada), Deep learning prediction of antimicrobial peptides

Session IV: Peptide drugs for challenging diseases

  • Guangshun Wang (University of Nebraska Medical Center), Human cathelicidin LL-37 + APD → Aksarbin
  • William Shafer (Emory University, USA), Gonorrhea, antimicrobial peptides and decreased susceptibility mechanisms impacting clinically used antibiotics
  • Leslie M. Hicks (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA), Mass spectrometry discovery of natural antimicrobial peptides
  • David Craik (The University of Queensland, Australia), Discovery of cyclotides as peptide therapeutics