Bringing together scientists from diverse biological disciplines, the ISPT unites researchers interested in the structure, substrates, and regulatory roles of protein termini across prokaryotic, animal, and plant systems. This community converges to explore enzymatic modifications, cellular quality control mechanisms, and their implications for organelle dynamics and stress responses. Advances in terminomics, cryo-EM studies, and biotechnological applications such as PROTACs underscore the transformative potential of the field in medical sciences and biotechnology.

Protein termini are critical hubs regulating protein fate, folding, localization, and degradation, yet they remain largely overlooked in mainstream conferences. Historically, research on termini has been fragmented across communities studying protein degradation, signaling, or structural biology. However, recent discoveries and technological advances demand a unified perspective.

Breakthroughs include the discovery of terminus-specific enzymes and substrates, mechanistic insights into how terminal modifications dictate protein stability, and new links to organelle homeostasis and stress responses. Cutting-edge approaches—such as N- and C-terminomics, cryo-EM structures of ribosomes bound to terminus modifiers, and terminus-inspired biotechnologies (e.g., PROTACs, tunable protein half-life tools)—highlight the transformative potential of this field. Yet, no dedicated international forum exists to integrate these advances across biological kingdoms and disciplines, representing both an opportunity and a pressing unmet need.

For updates, please follow @ispt-proteinterm.bsky.social‬, the official Bluesky account of the ISPT.

Use #proteintermini2026 for posts and also have a look at #proteintermini2019 and #nterm2017 at our retired X account for past meetings.

This is our current ISPT board:

Chair:

Carmela Giglione, French National Centre for Scientific Research, France

Vice Chairs:

Anna Kashina, University of Pennsylvania, USA

Nico Dissmeyer, University of Osnabruck, Germany

Secretary of international relations:

Beatrice Giuntoli, University of Pisa, Italy

Secretary of scientific meetings:

Ruth Geiss-Friedlander, University of Freiburg, Germany

Treasurer:

Francesco Licausi, University of Oxford, UK

Extended board:

Thomas Arnesen, University of Bergen, Norway

Andreas Bachmair, Max F. Perutz Laboratories, Austria

Tanja Bange, Ludwig Maximilians University, Germany

Emily Flashman, University of Oxford, UK

Michael John Holdworth, The University of Nottingham, UK

Rong Huang, Purdue University, USA

Cheol-Sang Hwang, Korea University, South Korea

Changhoon Ji, Seoul National University, Executive Director, AUTOTAC BIO, Inc. Korea

Yong Tae Kwon, Seoul National University, South Korea

Chris Overall, University of British Columbia, Canada

Freddie Theodoulou, Rothamsted Research, UK

John Tooley, University at Buffalo, USA

Social media:

Thomas Arnesen via @ispt-proteinterm.bsky.social

The International Society for Protein Termini (ISPT) is on Bluesky, our Twitter/X account is retired.

If you would like us to share relevant information such as a new publication from your lab and job offers, please send an email directly to Thomas Arnesen (thomas.arnesen@uib.no) and we will post it.