The FEBS Workshop 'Protein termini 2026: From mechanisms to biological impact' will be the 5th biennial conference of the International Society for Protein Termini (ISPT) and appear within the FEBS Advanced Courses programme. We will explore the fundamental roles of protein termini across kingdoms of life, with emphasis on how terminal modifications regulate protein fate, signaling, and disease.

The four-day programme is structured around eight thematic sessions that follow the functional journey of protein termini — from synthesis and co-translational processing, through terminal modifications, stability and signaling, to applications in medicine and biotechnology.

More about our conference programme:

The Palermo workshop will explore the fundamental roles of protein termini across kingdoms of life, with emphasis on how terminal modifications regulate protein fate, signaling, and disease. Highlights include two keynote lectures (Beckmann and Hartl), a dedicated session on terminal degrons (ISPT Lecture), and a closing session on therapeutic innovation. This progression fosters interdisciplinary dialogue across structural biology, cell biology, proteomics, synthetic biology, and translational research.

Our workshop will explore the critical roles of protein termini in biological processes, including proteostasis. As the first part of a nascent protein to emerge from the ribosome, the N-terminus undergoes co-translational modifications that dictate protein fate, while ribosome-associated factors and modifying enzymes act on both termini to influence folding, localization, and stability. The C-terminus, though historically less studied, is now recognized as equally important in regulating protein interactions and degradation. Additionally, protease-mediated processing generates new N- and C-termini, adding another layer of regulation. Understanding how these processes coordinate during translation and beyond remains a major question in biology with broad biological and therapeutic implications.

The workshop will span a logical progression from protein synthesis to terminal modifications, their role in degradation, functions beyond degradation, and therapeutic applications. It will open with “Molecular Choreography: Ribosomal Coordination of Terminal Fate”, featuring a keynote lecture by Prof. Roland Beckmann (LMU Munich) on N-terminal modifications during nascent chain synthesis, followed by talks on structural and mechanistic advances of ribosome-associated enzymatic factors. Next, the sessions “Terminal Modifications I & II: Mechanisms & Functions” will explore the full spectrum of terminal modifications, from well-established ones like N-terminal acetylation to recently discovered modifications such as Nt-methylation. The next two sessions, ”N-Terminal Signals in Protein Stability and N-Degrons and Their N-recognins”, will explore the role of N-terminal modifications in regulating protein stability. These sessions will provide key insights into N-degron pathways and ubiquitin ligase function. The session “Beyond Degradation: Functional Roles of Protein Termini” will highlight their broader regulatory functions. This will be followed by the second keynote lecture, delivered by Prof. F. Ulrich Hartl (MPI Biochemistry, Martinsried), on co-translational folding and its interplay with protein termini. The workshop will conclude with two sessions “Translating Terminal Modifications: From Basic Science to Therapeutics”, showcasing how advances in terminal modifications can be leveraged for technological innovation and translational research where we will also industry participation.