\r\nRegistration link\r\n
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\r\nThis symposium, taking place on October 7, 2026 on the EPFL campus, aims to connect two rapidly advancing fields that too often remain separated: resilience to life stress (allostasis, plasticity and adaptation across body systems) and resilience to cognitive decline (cognitive reserve, brain maintenance and mechanisms relevant to dementia risk).
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\r\nThe program will combine a 1-day Scientific Symposium with internationally leading invited speakers alongside talks from the EPFL community.
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\r\nThe symposium will be followed by an early-evening roundtable intended to engage the broader campus community, including colleagues from the University of Lausanne and beyond – this roundtable will be part of the 2026 EPFL Jours Santé program.\r\n
The talk is jointly organized by the EPFL AI Center and the MLO Lab as part of the AI fundamentals seminar series.
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\r\nHosting Professor: Prof. Martin Jaggi
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\r\nTitle
\r\nSpeedrunning SWE-bench, or the $1,000 coding agent
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\r\nAbstract
\r\nSpeedrunning has become a popular engineering challenge in machine learning: achieve the best performance within a fixed compute budget. We use it as a scientific tool to study how models acquire specialized skills and how far those skills transfer. We speedrun SWE-bench by training coding agents from scratch on demonstrations from stronger models. With about $1,000 of training compute, we reach a 25% solve rate, outperforming GPT-4o. Compared to models with extensive pre-training, our speedrun models solve largely the same SWE-bench problems, and generalize about as well to new bugs and codebases. What, then, does pre-training buy for SWE-bench? Our experiments suggest a one-student hypothesis: pre-training helps a student imitate its teacher, but at matched imitation loss, pre-training choices barely matter. We stress-test this hypothesis by comparing a model trained on the web against a “vintage\" one trained only pre-1931 documents. Up to the SWE-bench scores we reach, pre-training is interchangeable with specialization data. We release nanoswe as an open project for studying specialization through speedrunning.
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\r\nBio
\r\nRicardo Olmedo is a final-year PhD student at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen and a Google PhD Fellow. Advised by Moritz Hardt and Bernhard Schölkopf, he works on language model benchmarking and specialization. His research has earned three oral presentations at ICLR and NeurIPS. Most recently, he spent spring and summer 2026 visiting Sanmi Koyejo at Stanford University.
You can apply to participate and find all the relevant information (speakers, abstracts, program,...) on the event website: https://www.cecam.org/workshop-details/g-protein-coupled-receptors-functional-dynamics-revealed-by-experimental-and-computational-structural-data-1488.
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\r\nRegistration is required to attend the full event, take part in the social activities and present a poster at the poster session (if any). However, the EPFL community is welcome to attend specific lectures without registration if the topic is of interest to their research. Do not hesitate to contact the CECAM Event Manager if you have any question.
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\r\nDescription
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\r\nG protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) represent a vast and diverse class of transmembrane proteins that orchestrate a wide range of physiological processes by responding to both endogenous and exogenous ligands [1,2]. These receptors are essential to critical functions such as metabolism, immune regulation, neuronal signaling, and sensory perception - including vision and olfaction. Due to their physiological relevance and membrane accessibility, GPCRs are the targets of approximately 34% of all prescribed medications, accounting for nearly 27% of the global pharmaceutical market [3].
\r\nDespite their pharmaceutical importance, key aspects of GPCR function remain elusive. The canonical activation model posits that agonist binding to the extracellular orthosteric site triggers allosteric changes - most notably, the outward displacement of transmembrane helices 5 (TM5) and 6 (TM6) on the intracellular side - ultimately leading to receptor activation [2-4]. However, recent evidence suggests a more nuanced mechanism. In several GPCRs, activation appears to involve cooperative engagement between the agonist and the G protein. For example, the G protein may disrupt an \"inactivating ionic lock\" - a salt bridge between TM3 and TM6 - while the agonist stabilizes the active conformation. In some receptors, this is complemented by the formation of an “activating ionic lock” between TM5 and TM6 [5-8]. These dual contributions are considered thermodynamically essential for full activation [7].
\r\nAdding further complexity, GPCR activity is regulated by conformational microswitches and finely tuned intra-protein interaction networks. These dynamic rearrangements are difficult to capture and often elude direct correlation with functional outcomes. Moreover, allosteric ligands - which bind sites distinct from the orthosteric pocket - are being increasingly identified [9-12], along with small molecules capable of biased signaling, i.e., preferential activation of specific intracellular pathways [11-13, 16, 17]. These findings reveal a rich and underexplored conformational landscape that governs GPCR signaling. In addition, native membrane components—such as lipids and interacting proteins, including GPCR oligomers—are known to significantly modulate receptor function [11, 18-22].
\r\nTo disentangle these intricacies, computational modeling has become indispensable, offering atomistic insight into GPCR conformational dynamics and mechanistic understanding [1-2, 7, 11, 14, 16–21, 23]. Nevertheless, key questions remain - particularly regarding the structural basis of biased signaling, strategies for leveraging allosteric networks in pharmacology, and the modulatory role of the lipid environment. Addressing these gaps is crucial for both fundamental biology and the rational design of next-generation GPCR-targeting drugs with improved selectivity and safety profiles.
\r\nThese scientific challenges form the foundation of our upcoming workshop, which will focus on the latest experimental and computational approaches for studying the functional dynamics of GPCRs. Given the profound health, economic, and societal implications of modulating these receptors with precision, we aim to strengthen the interdisciplinary nature of the event by increasing the representation of experimental research and integrating cutting-edge artificial intelligence applications into the program.
\r\nBuilding upon the success of the 2022 and 2024 editions - which led to new collaborations and a landmark publication in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery [24] - our goal is to further enhance communication and collaboration between experimentalists and theoreticians. The workshop will serve as a reference point for young scientists and students, offering a platform to interact with leading international experts. We are confident that this initiative will foster insightful discussions and contribute meaningfully to advancing the field of GPCR pharmacology.
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\r\nReferences
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\r\n[1] J. Smith, R. Lefkowitz, S. Rajagopal, Nat. Rev. Drug. Discov., 17, 243-260 (2018)
\r\n[2] P. Conflitti, E. Lyman, M. Sansom, P. Hildebrand, H. Gutiérrez-de-Terán, P. Carloni, T. Ansell, S. Yuan, P. Barth, A. Robinson, C. Tate, D. Gloriam, S. Grzesiek, M. Eddy, S. Prosser, V. Limongelli, Nat. Rev. Drug. Discov., 24, 251-275 (2025)
\r\n[3] L. Picard, A. Orazietti, D. Tran, A. Tucs, S. Hagimoto, Z. Qi, S. Huang, K. Tsuda, A. Kitao, A. Sljoka, R. Prosser, Nat. Chem. Biol., 21, 71-79 (2024)
\r\n[4] B. Huang, C. St. Onge, H. Ma, Y. Zhang, Drug Discovery Today, 26, 189-199 (2021)
\r\n[5] D. Di Marino, P. Conflitti, S. Motta, V. Limongelli, Nat. Commun., 14, 6439 (2023)
\r\n[6] G. Milligan, R. Ward, S. Marsango, Current Opinion in Cell Biology, 57, 40-47 (2019)
\r\n[7] S. Huang, O. Almurad, R. Pejana, Z. Morrison, A. Pandey, L. Picard, M. Nitz, A. Sljoka, R. Prosser, eLife, 11, (2022)
\r\n[8] A. Duncan, W. Song, M. Sansom, Annu. Rev. Pharmacol. Toxicol., 60, 31-50 (2020)
\r\n[9] A. Morales-Pastor, T. Miljuš, M. Dieguez-Eceolaza, T. Stępniewski, V. Ledesma-Martin, F. Heydenreich, T. Flock, B. Plouffe, C. Le Gouill, J. Duchaine, D. Sykes, C. Nicholson, E. Koers, W. Guba, A. Rufer, U. Grether, M. Bouvier, D. Veprintsev, J. Selent, Nat. Commun., 16, 5265 (2025)
\r\n[10] A. Faouzi, H. Wang, S. Zaidi, J. DiBerto, T. Che, Q. Qu, M. Robertson, M. Madasu, A. El Daibani, B. Varga, T. Zhang, C. Ruiz, S. Liu, J. Xu, K. Appourchaux, S. Slocum, S. Eans, M. Cameron, R. Al-Hasani, Y. Pan, B. Roth, J. McLaughlin, G. Skiniotis, V. Katritch, B. Kobilka, S. Majumdar, Nature, 613, 767-774 (2022)
\r\n[11] M. Wall, E. Hill, R. Huckstepp, K. Barkan, G. Deganutti, M. Leuenberger, B. Preti, I. Winfield, S. Carvalho, A. Suchankova, H. Wei, D. Safitri, X. Huang, W. Imlach, C. La Mache, E. Dean, C. Hume, S. Hayward, J. Oliver, F. Zhao, D. Spanswick, C. Reynolds, M. Lochner, G. Ladds, B. Frenguelli, Nat. Commun., 13, 4150 (2022)
\r\n[12] D. Wootten, A. Christopoulos, M. Marti-Solano, M. Babu, P. Sexton, Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell. Biol., 19, 638-653 (2018)
\r\n[13] D. Hilger, M. Masureel, B. Kobilka, Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol., 25, 4-12 (2018)
\r\n[14] D. Aranda-García, T. Stepniewski, M. Torrens-Fontanals, A. García-Recio, M. Lopez-Balastegui, B. Medel-Lacruz, A. Morales-Pastor, A. Peralta-García, M. Dieguez-Eceolaza, D. Sotillo-Nuñez, T. Ding, M. Drabek, C. Jacquemard, J. Jakowiecki, W. Jespers, M. Jiménez-Rosés, V. Jun-Yu-Lim, A. Nicoli, U. Orzel, A. Shahraki, J. Tiemann, V. Ledesma-Martin, F. Nerín-Fonz, S. Suárez-Dou, O. Canal, G. Pándy-Szekeres, J. Mao, D. Gloriam, E. Kellenberger, D. Latek, R. Guixà-González, H. Gutiérrez-de-Terán, I. Tikhonova, P. Hildebrand, M. Filizola, M. Babu, A. Di Pizio, S. Filipek, P. Kolb, A. Cordomi, T. Giorgino, M. Marti-Solano, J. Selent, Nat. Commun., 16, 2020 (2025)
\r\n[15] D. Thal, A. Glukhova, P. Sexton, A. Christopoulos, Nature, 559, 45-53 (2018)
\r\n[16] L. Slosky, M. Caron, L. Barak, Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, 42, 283-299 (2021)
\r\n[17] C. Zhu, X. Lan, Z. Wei, J. Yu, J. Zhang, Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B, 14, 67-86 (2024)
\r\n[18] V. D’Amore, P. Conflitti, L. Marinelli, V. Limongelli, Chem, 10, 3678-3698 (2024)
\r\n[19] A. Mafi, S. Kim, W. Goddard, Nat. Chem., 15, 1127-1137 (2023)
\r\n[20] H. Batebi, G. Pérez-Hernández, S. Rahman, B. Lan, A. Kamprad, M. Shi, D. Speck, J. Tiemann, R. Guixà-González, F. Reinhardt, P. Stadler, M. Papasergi-Scott, G. Skiniotis, P. Scheerer, B. Kobilka, J. Mathiesen, X. Liu, P. Hildebrand, Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol., 31, 1692-1701 (2024)
\r\n[21] A. Manglik, T. Kim, M. Masureel, C. Altenbach, Z. Yang, D. Hilger, M. Lerch, T. Kobilka, F. Thian, W. Hubbell, R. Prosser, B. Kobilka, Cell, 161, 1101-1111 (2015)
\r\n[22] M. Congreve, C. de Graaf, N. Swain, C. Tate, Cell, 181, 81-91 (2020)
\r\n[23] J. Lorente, A. Sokolov, G. Ferguson, H. Schiöth, A. Hauser, D. Gloriam, Nat. Rev. Drug. Discov., 24, 458-479 (2025)
\r\n[24] M. Lopez‐Balastegui, T. Stepniewski, M. Kogut‐Günthel, A. Di Pizio, M. Rosenkilde, J. Mao, J. Selent, British. J. Pharmacology., 182, 3211-3224 (2024)\r\n
The EPFL EcoCloud Center is proud to invite you to the Annual Event 2026.
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\r\nOnce again we will be welcoming you to Lausanne Palace.
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\r\nThe Event will feature a keynote presentation:\r\n
Triple S (Super Sandwich Seminar) will feature three speakers per week, each giving a 15-minute presentation followed by a 5-minute Q&A session.
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