CONFERENCE REPORT
19th Naples Workshop on Bioactive Peptides
Napoli, Italy, 25-27 June 2026.
Following a long tradition started in 1988, also this year we organized the Naples Workshop on Bioactive Peptides to discuss Peptide Science in Napoli. The Naples workshop was held under the auspices of the European Peptide Society (EPS) and of the Italian Peptide Society (ItPS). It has been organized by the Research Centre on Bioactive Peptides “Carlo Pedone” (CIRPeB) at University of Naples Federico II, a research center that join together researchers of the Naples area and that is now titled to Prof. Carlo Pedone, died in September 2022, that was the first organizer together with Prof. Ettore Benedetti, of the Naples Workshops on Bioactive Peptides.
The organization event was also due to the collaboration of the Department of Pharmacy, the University Luigi Vanvitelli, and by the Institute of Crystallography and the Institute of Biostructures and Bioimages of Italian CNR with the precious assistance of the organizing agency YesMeet. Chairmen of the workshop were Giancarlo Morelli, Paolo Grieco, Menotti Ruvo and Michele Saviano.
The Naples Workshop was held at the Congress Center of the University of Naples “Federico II” on June 25-27, 2026, in a very pleasant venue, on the seafront of Naples, very close to the castle on the sea, and has had an extraordinary attendance of over 180 peptide scientists of different countries from all over the world.
The topics of the workshop were:
• Peptide Drug Development in the Artificial Intelligence Era
• Peptide-Based Drug Development: Where are we going?
• Peptides in Diagnostic Applications
• Antimicrobial Peptides
• Peptide mimetics
• Peptides in Chemical Biology
• Chemical Ligation and Bioconjugation
• Folding and Aggregation of Peptides
• Peptides in Immunology
The theme of the workshop concerning the state of the art on Bioactive Peptides was covered by the opening lecture of Prof. Fernando Albericio, eleven plenary lectures, nine keynotes, twenty oral presentations, and three poster sessions. A special session was dedicated to contributions by companies. Another session was dedicated to flash presentations from young researchers. All the three intense days were completely dedicated to the peptide science.
Chairs at the opening ceremony: Menotti Ruvo, Michele Saviano, Paolo Grieco and Giancarlo Morelli
The following plenary lectures were presented by distinguished scientists coming from all over the
world:
Fernando Albericio, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa “Redifining Peptide Synthesis:
Emerging Strategies for Sustainable Future”
Guido Franzoso, Imperial College, London, UK “Cancer-Selective targeting of the NF-κB
pathway with GADD45β/MKK7 inhibitors: Clinical evidence from early-phase trial”
Christian Becker, University of Vienna, Austria “The impact of posttranslational modifications
on chaperone function and protein degradation”
Philip Thompson, Monash University, Parkville, Australia “Diverse cyclic peptide architectures
for targeting melanocortin receptors”
David Craik, The University of Queensland, Australia “Update on applications of cyclotides in
drug design”
Severin Schneebeli, Purdue University, United States “Permeation-Enhancer Mediated Peptide
Transport Across Biological Membranes: Mechanism, Simulation, and Emerging Single-Molecule
Approaches”
Gianluigi Veglia, University of Minnesota, United States “Molecular Details for activation and
deactivation of the sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase (SERCA) by membrane polypeptides
Ines Neundorf, University of Cologne, Germany “Design of cell-permeable DHHC peptides
targeting S-palmitoylation dynamics”
Meritxell Teixido – Gate2Brain – Barcellona -Spain “Gate2Brain, an Entrepreneurial Journey
Towards Patients”
Maurizio Pellecchia, UC Riverside, United States “Novel covalent strategies for therapeutic
peptides”
Michal Lebl, Spyder Institute Prague, Czech Republic “Reminiscences of 50 years in peptide
chemistry”
Govindaraju Thimmaiah, JNCASR, Bengaluru, India “Peptide Modulators of Multifactorial
Alzheimer’s Pathology”
All lectures were extremely interesting and stimulated a great participation from all the audience.
The award in the memory of Prof. Luis Moroder, was selected among all participants at the flash communication session and was assigned ex-equo to Dr. C. Diaferia and A. Ferraro.
Concerning the social events, the first day was organized a welcome party for all participants, in the late afternoon of Fryday 26th was organized a ride by lift to Monte Echia to enjoy a special view of Naples and, at the end of the scientific sessions, the gala dinner at Restaurant Transatlantico, was also much appreciated by the participants.
The Naples workshop has been a highly successful forum for the exchange of ideas on hot subjects and trends in peptide science and an important and decisive stimulus for future work in the area. The venue on the seafront of Naples, offered to participants, beside science, the occasion of enjoying the city with its churches and its historical monuments.
Contributed by Giancarlo Morelli