The 26th Heart of Europe Bio-Crystallography Meeting (HEC-Meeting) took place from September 26th to 28th in Kraków, at the Forest Hotel. The event was organized by Dr. hab. Sebastian Glatt and Dr. hab. Przemysław Grudnik from the Malopolska Centre of Biotechnology at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków.

Purpose of the conference: The HEC-Meeting brings together the academic and industrial communities interested in structural biology, particularly protein crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM). Researchers from Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Poland participated to present their research and engage in vibrant discussions.

Invited Speaker: Presentations were mainly delivered by young researchers—PhD students and postdoctoral fellows. The invited HEC lecture was given by Prof. Dr. Arwen Pearson, an experimental biophysicist specializing in X-ray crystallography, single crystal spectroscopy, and structural enzymology, with a strong focus on developing new methods to explore molecular mechanisms in biology.

Team Representation: The Malopolska Centre of Biotechnology was represented by Dr. hab. Sebastian Glatt, Dr. Monika Gaik, Priyanka Dahate, Rahul Mehta, and Kamil Przytulski.

Program Highlights: Each session consisted of four regular talks and four short flash talks.

• Dr. Monika Gaik presented her project titled “Exploring the modifications of human tRNA by dihydrouridine synthases (DUS)”.
• Priyanka Dahate delivered a flash talk titled “Structural characterization of targeted protein degradation systems”.
• Rahul Mehta presented a flash talk titled “Structural studies of Armless tRNAs by cryo-electron microscopy”.