Heart of Europe Bio-Crystallography Meeting
The Heart of Europe Bio-Crystallography Meeting is an annual academic conference on structural biology, in particular protein crystallography. Researchers from universities, other research institutions and industry from Austria, Czech Republic, Germany and Poland meet to present and discuss current topics of their research. The talks are predominantly given by PhD students. An exception is the invited HEC lecture, which is held by a renowned scientist of the research field. The format of the HEC meeting has been adopted from the eleven years older .
History of the HEC-Meeting
The HEC-Meeting dates back to an initiative in the year 1998 of Manfred Weiss and Rolf Hilgenfeld, who were researchers at the Institute for Molecular Biotechnology in Jena and intended to establish a meeting format similar to the in the New Länder. Both conferences are regional meetings of German scientists together with scientific research groups of the neighbouring countries. Nine groups from Germany, Poland and Czech Republic participated in the first HEC-Meeting from 8 to 10 October 1998. Later also groups from Austria and the Old Federal States participated.Former HEC-Meetings:
| Meeting | year | location | organiser | participants | HEC-lecture | Weblink |
| HEC-1 | 1998 | Walkmühle in the Mühltal, Germany | R. Hilgenfeld, M. Weiss, IMB Jena | 41 | - | |
| HEC-2 | 1999 | Lübben, Germany | U. Heinemann, Y. Muller, MDC Berlin | 53 | V. Lamzin | |
| HEC-3 | 2000 | Poznan, Poland | M. Jaskolski, CBB Poznan | 53 | G. Sheldrick | , |
| HEC-4 | 2001 | Bedřichov, Czech Republic | J. Sedlacek, IMG Prague | 48 | Z. Otwinowski | |
| HEC-5 | 2002 | Goslar, Germany | D. Heinz, GBF Brunswick | 68 | A. Yonath | |
| HEC-6 | 2003 | Wittenberg, Germany | S. König, M. Stubbs, MLU Halle | 113 | T. Bergfors | |
| HEC-7 | 2004 | Krzyżowa, Poland | M. Bochtler, IIMCB Warsaw | 101 | A. Wlodawer | |
| HEC-8 | 2005 | Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic | J. Sedlacek, IMG Prague | 101 | Z. Dauter | |
| HEC-9 | 2006 | Teistungenburg, Germany | R. Ficner, Univ. Göttingen | 128 | E. Garman | |
| HEC-10 | 2007 | Będlewo, Poland | M. Jaskolski, CBB Poznan | 116 | G. Dodson | |
| HEC-11 | 2008 | Greifswald, Germany | W. Hinrichs, Univ. Greifswald | 102 | P. Nissen | |
| HEC-12 | 2009 | Třešť, Czech Republic | P. Rezacova, IMG Prag | 107 | P. Emsley | , |
| HEC-13 | 2010 | Schöneck/Vogtl., Germany | N. Sträter, Leipzig University | 107 | A. Popov | , |
| HEC-14 | 2011 | Żagań, Poland | M. Jaskolski, CBB/PTPS Poznan | 101 | Z. Derewenda | |
| HEC-15 | 2012 | Beilngries, Germany | Y. Muller, Univ. Erlangen | 93 | B. Rupp | |
| HEC-16 | 2013 | St Georgen im Attergau, Austria | K. Djinovic-Carugo, Univ. Vienna | 114 | P. Tompa | , |
| HEC-17 | 2014 | Akademie Berlin-Schmöckwitz, Germany | M. Weiss, U. Müller, HZB Berlin | 134 | G. Klebe | , |
| HEC-18 | 2015 | Kutná Hora, Czech Republic | J. Dohnálek, IBT Prague | 120 | R. Read | |
| HEC-19 | 2016 | Warberg, Germany | W. Blankenfeld, A. Scrima, HZI Brunswick | 119 | I. Schlichting | |
| HEC-20 | 2017 | Wojanów Palace, Poland | M. Bochtler, M. Nowotny, IIMCB Warsaw | 112 | Tim Clausen | |
| HEC-21 | 2018 | Quedlinburg | M. Stubbs, MLU Halle | Michael Rossmann |