Biophysical Newsletter - February 2014

Newsletter february 2014 Council Articulates Society’s Goals BPS promotes scientific excellence, integrity, diversity, and community building

Deadlines

Summer Course in Biophysics May 13–July 31, 2014 Chapel Hill, North Carolina

growth, is necessary to the expansion of the field of biophysics and to maintain membership, meeting, and journal vitality. Educate. All Society activities will continue to promote and foster education in and apprecia- tion of biophysics at all levels; provide information to future scientists, lay people, and the greater scientific community about the importance of and need for biophysics and basic research; disseminate biophysical research within the biophysics com- munity as well as the greater scientific community; and provide career development and networking opportunities for current and future biophysicists. Communicate. Never more than today has there been a need for continuous communication to the public and policy makers about the relevance and importance of biophysics research to the health and welfare of the world, and the relevance and importance of biophysics research as an engine for technical innovation and economic growth. The Biophysical Society’s efforts in this area are vital to the field and to scientific research in general.

The Society’s newly reorganized Council recently met to discuss the Society’s current and future plans and goals. Council reaffirmed that the Society’s mis- sion and purpose as stated in its bylaws, to promote the field of biophysics and disseminate biophysics research, is more important than ever as biological research becomes increasingly quantitative. Council also agreed that in order to fulfill its mis- sion and best serve its members and those in the field of biophysics, the Society and all its programs must foster and embody the basic values of scientific excellence, integrity and transparency, diversity and inclusion, and community building. The Biophysical Society, which by its very nature is international and interdisciplinary, will continue, through all its programs and publications, to work toward its goals to: Evolve. The Society has always been and will continue to be open to and actively seek new and emerging areas and communities while maintain- ing existing ones. Evolution, as opposed to simple

February 15, 2014 Priority Application Submission

Thematic Meetings 2014 Modeling of Biomolecular Systems Interactions, Dynamics, and Allostery September 10–14, 2014 Istanbul, Turkey May 5 Abstract Submission Significance of Knotted Structures for Function of Proteins and Nucleic Acids September 17–21, 2014 Warsaw, Poland May 12 Abstract Submission Disordered Motifs and Domains in Cell Control October 11–15, 2014 Dublin, Ireland June 2 Abstract Submission

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Contents

2 4 5 6 8

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Biophysicist in Profile Biophysical Journal

Molly Cule

11 11 12

Grants and Opps

Biophysical Society

Public Affairs

Members in the News

Annual Meeting

Upcoming Events

Subgroups

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Biophysical Society

Biophysicist in Profile dorothy Beckett

Officers President Francisco Bezanilla President-Elect Dorothy Beckett Past-President Jane Richardson Secretary Lukas Tamm Treasurer Paul Axelsen Council Karen Fleming Taekjip Ha Amy Harkins Samantha Harris Peter Hinterdorfer Juliette Lecomte Amy Lee Marcia Levitus Marjorie Longo Merritt Maduke Daniel Minor, Jr. Jeanne Nerbonne Gail Robertson Claudia Veigel Antoine van Oijen Bonnie Wallace David Yue Biophysical Journal Leslie Loew Editor-in-Chief

As a child, incoming Biophysical Society President Dorothy Beckett showed an early interest in the natural world. She collected bugs, performed experiments, and explored the world around her. It was in high school that Beckett really became interested in studying science in a formal setting. During this time, she attended a weekly series at Yale University, where she was able to visit laboratories and see sophisticated scientific equipment. Beckett and the other students also attended lectures on a broad range of scientific topics. Though she was interested in science, Beckett began her college career at Barnard College studying Chinese. After spending a year abroad in Taiwan, she real- ized that a career in Sinology would not be as intellectually satisfying for her as a future in science would. She continued studying Chinese after returning to the US, but committed to a major in chemistry. Beckett was able to obtain a work-study job in Cathy Squires’s laboratory in the Columbia University Biol- ogy Department. It was during her time there that Beckett first discovered biophysics: “I distinctly recall being asked to present a group meeting on a paper from the literature, and ended up choosing one published by the Cozarrelli labora- tory on DNA gyrase.This paper revealed to me that I could apply the quantitative approaches that I was learning in my chemistry courses to understanding biology.” Her focus was further shifted toward the biophysical by Charles Cantor and Jonathan Greer , who taught Beckett in her undergraduate years. After receiving her AB in chemistry from Barnard College, Beckett pursued a PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Illinois in the lab of Olke Uhlenbeck . As an advisor, Uhlenbeck encouraged Beckett to think quantitatively about biol- ogy. In her PhD project, she studied coupled equilibria in virus assembly. While at the University of Illinois, Beckett also took classes with Gregorio Weber , a pioneer in biological fluorescence spectroscopy. Beckett says, “[Weber] thought deeply about thermodynamic coupling in biology. His lectures on this topic were so inspiring for me that I attended his course twice.” Attending the University of Illinois was quite a change of scenery for Beckett after completing her undergraduate degree in New York City. Catherine Royer , a colleague who met Beckett while they were in graduate school together, recalls a particular occasion when the two lost their way in a cornfield after a Biochemis- try Department retreat in the country. “Coming from Barnard, Dorothy was in pretty big culture shock in central Illinois. I don’t think she had ever been lost in a cornfield before! Anyway, we finally found our way back by looking for trees. In central Illinois, about the only place you find trees is in towns—just the opposite of the east coast. I remember she found this really strange,” Royer recalls. Once she had obtained her PhD, Beckett arranged a postdoc to study with both Bob Sauer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Gary Ackers at

“ I love the surprises that result from research, because they force me to think in ways that I could not have contemplated. ” – Dorothy Beckett

Society Office Ro Kampman Executive Officer

Newsletter Alisha Yocum Monika Zakrzewska Production Laura Phelan Profile

Ellen Weiss Public Affairs

The Biophysical Society Newsletter (ISSN 0006-3495) is published twelve times per year, January- December, by the Biophysical Society, 11400 Rockville Pike, Suite 800, Rockville, Maryland 20852. Distributed to USA members and other countries at no cost. Canadian GST No. 898477062. Postmaster: Send address changes to Biophysical Society, 11400 Rockville Pike, Suite 800, Rockville, MD 20852. Copyright © 2014 by the Biophysical Society. Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

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research, because they force me to think in ways that I could not have contemplated.” In addition to the rewards of exciting science, Beckett finds ful- fillment in teaching students, and watching them develop into mature scientists. Being a prominent member of the Biophysical Society has given Beck- ett even more opportunities to assist and encourage young scientists in their careers. Certainly, she has many qualities of a good mentor; as a colleague, Royer says, “[She is] enthusiastic, with very high scientific standards. Fun as well.” Another friend since grad school, Suzanne Scarlata , has also been impressed with Beckett’s spiritedness, saying, “If I have to describe Dorothy, I would have to point out her keen sense of justice and the passion she has for everything she is involved with.” When she is not working, Beckett spends much of her time devoted to a second passion: marathon running. “As an Assistant Professor,” she says, “I started running for stress relief. Once I ran my first road race, I was hooked.” Since that first race, she estimates that she has run twenty-five marathons and hundreds of races of shorter distances. In fact, running is the only career outside of biophysics that she could see herself pursuing—that is, “If I were twenty-five years younger and much faster than I am,” she says. She also enjoys spending her leisure time observing national and world politics, watching her children, Anne and Michael, negoti- ate early adulthood, gardening, and cooking. Beckett applies her characteristic passion to science policy, as well, and to consideration of the future of the field. “Many of the tools that biophysicists have developed, including computation, single molecule and imaging techniques, and structural analysis are maturing,” Beckett says. “In the future, interdisci- plinary approaches involving application of a range of these technologies will be applied to understand- ing increasingly complex systems.” In this new and complex landscape, she says, “I hope that biophysi- cists do not abandon their quests to understand the seemingly simple phenomena, such as the role of water in biomolecular interactions and folding.” For the young scientists who will be shaping the future of biophysics, Beckett has one simple piece of advice: “Keep the fire in your belly, and your head on straight.”

Johns Hopkins University. “At the time, I thought that the combined molecular biological and quan- titative thermodynamic approaches available in the two laboratories would be ideal for determin- ing the molecular details of coupled equilibria in bacteriophage lambda developmental switch,” she says. This geographically complex arrangement did present its challenges, but worked out well for Beckett in the end. She learned what she calls, “an amazing amount of stuff” and was afforded an opportunity to meet and interact with inspiring scientists like Jim Bowie, Jim Hu , Madeline Shea , and Mike Brenowitz . Though Beckett has dedicated her career to studying science, she does not come from a family of scientists. Her father worked as a tool designer for United Technologies, while her mother was quite busy caring for fifteen children. Of all the siblings, only Beckett and her twin sister, Joanne, pursued science as a field of study. Joanne now uses her knowledge of chemistry to create pottery in London. For Beckett, working as a biophysicist has had its challenges over the years; the biggest at this time being the scarcity of available research funding, “Given the current slump, I suspect that this is true for many scientists,” Beckett says. Another major challenge was finding a geographical area where both Beckett and her husband, Neal Fedarko , would be gainfully employed. After sending many applications, both were able to find jobs: Fedarko is on the faculty in the Department of Medicine, Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, at Johns Hopkins, and Beckett is a professor in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department at the University of Maryland. She describes herself as “a molecular biophysicist with a specific interest in biomolecular regulation. I have a keen interest in coupled equilibria and allostery, both how they work at the molecular level and their biological significance.” Currently, Beckett is working on de- termining crystal structures of proteins in the hopes that they will provide clues about how signals are communicated through a protein matrix. Learning new biology and new techniques is one of the most exciting aspects of Beckett’s work today. She says, “I love the surprises that result from

Dorothy Beckett finishes the 2013 Richmond Marathon where she was first in her age group.

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Biophysical Journal Corner

BJ Poster Awards In addition to the recently announced Paper of the Year Award, BJ is pleased to sponsor a new program of BPS Thematic Meeting Poster Awards. At each Society thematic meeting, a selection committee will identify four out- standing posters, two by students and two by postdocs. An award of $250 will be made to the presenting author for each of the four posters. Highlighted Papers Each month a few papers are highlighted in BJ with a New & Notable article. These are com- mentaries in which the author can highlight a point, question, or controversy raised in the paper it discusses. Visit www.biophysj.org to read these articles from a recent issue of BJ . Energetic View on Membrane Pore Formation , Martina Pannuzzo and Rainer A. Böckmann , which highlights the paper: Atomistic Simulations of Pore Formation and Closure in Lipid Bilayers , W.F. Drew Bennett , Nicolas Sapay , D. Peter Tieleman . Temperature Cycles Unravel the Dynamics of Single Biomolecules , Haifeng Yuan and Michel Orrit , which highlights the paper: Pulsed Infrared-Heating Studies of Single Molecule DNA Duplex Dissociation Kinetics and Thermodynamics , Erik D. Holmstrom , Nicholas F. Dupuis , and David J. Nesbitt . Big Cells Cleave as Fast as Small Ones: The Physics of Cytokinesis , Sriram Ramaswamy , which highlights the paper: Furrow Constriction in Animal Cell Cytokinesis , Herve Turlier , Basile Audoly , Jacques Prost , and Jean-Francois Joanny . Also see this Review, which was published in a recent issue of BJ : Vertex Models of Epithelial Morphogenesis by Alexander G. Fletcher , Miriam Osterfield , Ruth E. Baker , and Stanislav Y. Shvartsman .

Know the Editors

Antoine M. van Oijen University of Groningen Editor for Molecular Machines, Motors, and Nanoscale Biophysics Section

Antoine M. van Oijen

Q: What is your area of research?

My research revolves around the development and use of single-molecule biophysical tools to study complex biochemical systems. In particular, my group is using single-molecule approaches to understand how processes work such as DNA replication, viral fusion, and membrane transport. Following the motto “Seeing is believing,” we try to visualize, in real time, how molecular machiner- ies do their work. A good example is our work on DNA replication, where we use mechanical tools to stretch a piece of DNA and monitor length changes as a readout for the progression of the replication machinery. We then simultaneously observe the flu- orescence of individual replication proteins on the DNA to visualize dynamic changes in the composi- tion of the multi-protein replication complex. This single-molecule approach has helped us tremen- dously in answering some complicated questions related to the coordination of the DNA unwinding, priming, and synthesis activities that take place at the replication fork. Trained as a physicist but having worked in a biol- ogy environment for a large part of my career, I love combining the development of new tools with solving mechanistic puzzles at the molecular scale. In the same way, I enjoy being surrounded by colleagues from different disciplines. Being an editorial board member for Biophysical Journal brings me a similar satisfaction: I get to read the newest results from highly interdis- ciplinary research, and I have the opportunity to help the Journal publish the very best of it.

BPS Blog: Learn About BJ Images Visit the Society Blog page at http:// biophysicalsociety. wordpress.com/ to learn more about the images featured on the covers of BJ. Each post describes how the cover im- age artistically rep- resents the author’s research interest.

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Public Affairs Congress Approves Two-Year Budget Agreement Without the fanfare and public attention that accompanied the September 30 deadline for Congress to pass a budget for 2014, both the House and Senate approved a budget deal, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, which estab- lishes spending caps for discretionary programs for fiscal years 2014 and 2015. The legislation, announced December 10 by House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senate Budget Committee Chair Patty Murray (D- WA.), sets discretionary spending for FY 2014 at $1.012 trillion and eliminates $63 billion in sequestration cuts in FYs 2014 and 2015. The House approved the deal with a vote of 332-94, and the Senate followed suit with a vote of 64-36. The smooth passage of the bill should prevent another government shutdown in the next year. With a top line number in place, House Appro- priations Committee Chair Hal Rogers (R-KY) and Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) were reportedly work- ing on establishing allocations for each appropria- tions subcommittee, so that those committees can approve spending for the federal programs they oversee before the current continuing resolution funding the government expires on January 15, 2014. With the elimination of some of the sequestration cuts, advocates for programs such as science funding are optimistic that the short-term outlook for funding will be a little less bleak. NSF to Increase Transparency Under attack from the Chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Lamar Smith (R-TX) for the grants that it funds, the National Science Foundation announced its own plans to demonstrate its commitment to transparency and accountability in how it spends public funds.

On December 13, NSF Acting Director Cora Marrett issued a notice to Presidents of Colleges and Universities stating that the National Science Board and NSF senior leadership have identi- fied opportunities for improvement in two areas: accountability and communication. NSF plans to look at its processes to ensure its investments are in the national interest, as defined by NSF’s mission “to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity and welfare; to secure the national defense...” NSF also will be examin- ing its communications to ensure that investment decisions are clearly articulated to the public. “We believe we can enhance our public communica- tions of what we are funding and why it is impor- tant,” stated Marrett. The review may result in new policies and procedures at the agency. One way that NSF plans to improve its com- munication is by having project officers, with the assistance of researchers, write abstracts explain- ing the significance and justification of funded projects within the broader portfolio of awards. While many directorates already do this, this memo states that all directorates will be required to provide these abstracts. Bourne Named First NIH Associate Director for Data Science In December, NIH Director Francis Collins announced the selection of Philip E. Bourne as the first permanent Associate Director for Data Science (ADDS). Bourne was expected to join the NIH in early 2014. “Phil will lead an NIH-wide priority initiative to take better advantage of the exponential growth of biomedical research datasets, which is an area of critical importance to biomedical research. The era of ‘Big Data’ has arrived, and it is vital that the NIH play a major role in coordinating access to and analysis of many different data types that make up this revolution in biological ( Continued on page 8)

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58 th Annual Meeting February 15–19, 2014 | San Francisco, California

Meeting Updates Exhibitor Coupon Booklet Exhibitors will be offering money-saving opportu- nities to all attendees through Exhibitor Coupons, available onsite at registration and in the Exhibit Hall. Coupons will include show discounts on products, services, and may even include a raffle or two! Pick up your coupons at registration and explore the Exhibit Hall to use your coupons.

Terwilliger , Los Alamos National Laboratory; Jamie Cate , Lawrence Berkeley National Labora- tory; and John Spence , Arizona State University.

NEW

Free Networking Cards for Poster Presenters (Sponsored by Quartzy) Are you presenting a poster at BPS this year? If so, you already have 25 pre-printed Networking Cards waiting for you. Networking Cards are like business cards, but designed just for scien- tists. They carry your contact information, and they also have the title of your poster, your presentation date/time, and your abstract. Please pick them up at the “Networking Card” tables in the Exhibit Hall. The cards are sponsored by Quartzy, the world’s leading free online lab management platform. More information can be found online at www.biophysics.org/ 2014meeting , then click on ‘Abstract’ , ‘Poster Guidelines’ , ‘Quartzy Networking Cards' .

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Biophysical Society Bimolecular Dome

Visit this 3-D portable Dome, sponsored by the Public Affairs Committee, to see how difficult biophysical topics can be made accessible to the general public. Short videos will present a range of topics that will convey to students how research visualization provides insights and medical op- portunities as to the nature of pathogens and cells. Overall, these videos communicate the excitement of looking at macromolecular complexes and understanding the molecular basis for life. The Dome will be located in the Exhibit Hall and open during the following hours: Sunday–Tuesday: 10:00 am–5:00 pm Wednesday: 9:00 am–1:00 pm

Alamo Square with San Francisco panorama

Crystallography Review To celebrate the 100 th anniversary of the discovery of X-Ray diffraction, the February 4 issue of Bio- physical Journal (BJ) features a review by Jane and David Richardson highlighting 54 biophysically important structures. Copies of the review, which include Jane Richardson’s hand-drawn images, will be available at the Society booth in San Francisco. Stop by to pick up a copy and be sure to view the article online for additional enhancements. The celebration continues at the 58 th Annual Meeting of BPS. Attend the symposium Cel- ebrating 100 Years of Crystallography: X-Rays Are Photons Too on Sunday, February 16, from 4:00 to 6:00 pm, to hear noted speakers Jane Richardson , Duke University; Gregory Petsko , Brandeis Univer- sity; WilliamWeis , Stanford University; Thomas

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B r i d g i n g t h e S c i e n c e s t o E x p l o r e B i o l o g y

Sponsors Gold Level • Carl Zeiss

Daily Meet-Up Every evening at 5:30 pm a local student will be waiting at the Society Booth to meet up with attendees who want to experience the local flavor of San Francisco. As a group, you will find restaurants that will comfort and challenge your taste buds in the city known for its foodie culture and exquisite tastes. Bon appétit!

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Biophysical Society TV The Biophysical Society is partnering with the international film and broadcasting company, WebsEdge, to bring Biophysical Society TV to the 58 th Annual Meeting! Bio- physical Society TV will be an onsite Annual Meeting television channel featuring new episodes daily, screened around the venue, as well as on a dedicated television channel in selected guest hotel rooms and online. This venture serves to raise the visibility of the im- portant work of biophysicists and to provide an opportunity to learn about cutting-edge research and developments that are advanc- ing biophysics. Each daily program has two features: “Thought Leadership” and “Annual Meeting News.” Thought Leadership pieces are five- minute sponsored film segments highlight- ing major programs and activities underway in the field. Annual Meeting News is a daily program of meeting highlights, featuring “behind the scenes” interviews, coverage of meeting events, and reactions to the day’s events from attendees.

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Onsite Registration On-site registration at the Moscone Center will be open: Friday, February 14, 3:00pm–5:00 pm Saturday, February 15, 8:00 am–6:30 pm Sunday, February 16–Tuesday, February 18, 7:30 am–5:00 pm Wednesday, February 19, 8:00 am–3:00 pm

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Lombard Street

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Q. Can you describe the initial reception to the idea of IDPs having function in their disordered state? Complete and utter skepticism! There was the thought that IDPs wouldn’t survive in the cell... The dogma that prevailed was that structure equals function, and that recognition was by lock and key. Those ideas were firmly ingrained in the com- munity, and they didn’t see that disorder had any role in biology. What changed that view is the huge number of examples of IDPS that have been identified and studied in detail. There’s been an explosion of data over the last few years on proteins that are clearly disordered and have extremely important biological functions. Q: Where do you think IDP research will go in the future? One important thing is development of tech- nologies to characterize full-length proteins. Huge numbers of eukaryotic proteins have both globular domains and disordered regions. How do we characterize these, beyond reduction domain by domain, region by region, to understand how the whole protein works synergistically? The other one is going to be tough: addressing structural and biophysical questions on IDPs in their native environment in the cell. Are interac- tion domains of IDPs always bound to partners and folded? To what extent are they free and flexible? The challenge of studying regulatory and signaling IDPs in their native environment will be their low concentrations—developing technology for such studies will be critical. — Lauren Ann Metskas , Graduate Student Representative

( Continued from page 5)

information,” said Collins in a press release an- nouncing the appointment. Prior to coming to the NIH, Bourne was Associ- ate Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Industry Alliances and a Professor in professor of pharmacol- ogy at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharma- ceutical Sciences at the University of California, San Diego. He also is the Associate Director of the Research Collaboratory for Structural Bio- informatics (RCSB) Protein Data Bank and has published over 300 papers and five books. Bourne received his PhD from The Flinders University in South Australia. Congressman Wolf Announces Retirement Congressman Frank Wolf announced that he will not seek re-election and will retire at the end of his term in January 2015. As Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee for Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, Wolf oversees the committee responsible for providing annual appropriations for the NSF, NASA, and the Office of Science and Technology Policy. In this position, he has been a supporter of federal funding for science. Subgroups IDP We recently had the wonderful opportunity to speak with Peter Wright about the history and future of the IDP field. Wright is a Professor in the Department of Integrative Structural and Compu- tational Biology at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla; he published seminal works in the IDP literature and has been instrumental in the evolu- tion of the field. An excerpt from the interview is provided here. To read the full article, go to the Subgroups page on www.biophysics.org, select IDP, then select the link IDP Articles of Interest.

Need Advice? Find help on the BPS Mentor Board . Sign up and start connecting today! www.biophysics.org/Professional Development/Careers

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Dear Molly Cule

Professor Molly Cule is delighted to receive comments on her answers and (anonymized) questions at mollycule@biophysics.org , or visit her on the BPS Blog.

physics background. Also, consider whether you would prefer to pursue theoretical/computational studies, hands-on molecular or cellular biophysical experiments, or a mix of both. An investigator’s interest in molecular biology usually stems from an initial interest in a particu- lar biological function (how T-cells learn; how the cardiac muscle contracts; how tumor cells perform extravasation; how neurotransmitter is released from a synaptic terminal; how DNA methylation affects gene expression; how &c, &c…). In many cases, the biological function is one in which dysfunction is associated with a disease state of some clinical importance. In some cases, the intent is purely to understand the mechanism of the biological function for its own sake, perhaps with a view to learning something from it that might provide utility beyond the realm of biology. On the face of it, your decision may appear daunting, but once you develop an interest and a plan to learn about biophysical function of an important biological problem the rewards are endless. It all seems absurd on the face of it, until you appreciate that a critical step in advancing hu- man health requires that we understand disease mechanisms at the molecular level. By under- standing how the structure of a molecule, be it a polynucleotide or a protein, confers its function, we can learn not only how an error in structure might underpin an error in function (e.g., how a polymorphism gives rise to the symptoms of a particular congenital disorder), but also how to potentially manipulate the molecule of inter- est in a manner that might provide therapeutic benefit (perhaps by designing a drug to inhibit or activate it). Examples include, studying ion chan- nels with a view to developing semi-permeable

“I am a student of Physics. I want to go for research in molecular biology. Please help me to explore this field. What are the op- tions for a guy from physics in biology in research?” Well, as a physicist with an interest in biology you could certainly do a lot worse than explore your options in the heady realm of biophysics, that’s for sure! The Biophysical Society is ready and willing to assist in such a transition, and this helpful pamphlet (http://www.biophysics.org/ Portals/1/PDFs/Career%20Center/Careers%20 In%20Biophysics.pdf) is where I would advise you to begin said exploration. It’s difficult to provide cogent advice without further information about your interests and skills. However, you specify molecular biology as a particular area of interest. As you will learn, the area of molecular biology is big. It’s really big. When the late Douglas Adams wrote, “You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is, ” he could have been talking about the area of molecular biology. He wasn’t, of course, he was talking about space, but regardlessthe point is that an investigator studying molecular biology can spend an entire career meticulously unraveling the secrets of one single protein, or one single domain of one single protein. Your motivation for switching fields is an im- portant piece of information missing from your question. To help focus your search, you may want to look into your skillset and determine the topics in physics that you are good at or comfort- able with, and envision how those principles could be applied to molecular biology or biophysical problems. There are lots of proteins to study and somebody, somewhere, is probably investigating one meticulously that could benefit from quan- titative skill that you can offer building on your

( Continued on page 10)

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Lambda DG-4/DG-5 PLUS

( Continued from page 9) membranes for water desalination, or studying neural control of muscle mechanics with a view to enhanced engineering of automated machines. Whatever the hook might be, there is usually some bigger picture that lures the investigator into the realm of molecular biology. So, read the incredibly useful pamphlet on careers in biophysics that is highlighted above, think about your learned strengths and weaknesses throughout your physics education, and identify an aspect of biology that you find particularly interesting. One other thing, which I probably should have mentioned at the beginning: if you want to get into molecular biology, you’ll prob- ably need to dip your toes in some chemistry first. Preferably organic. Hope this helps. Yours faithfully, Molly Cule

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Grants and Opportunities

2014–2015 California Science and Technology Policy Fellowships

Objective: To provide the hands-on experience working with the California Legislature to incor- porate science and technology into public policy. Who May Apply: A PhD or equivalent level degree or a MS degree in an engineering discipline, plus at least three years post-degree experience; and U.S. citizenship or suitable immigration status for non-residents. Submission Deadline: February 28, 2014 Website: http://fellows.ccst.us/apply.php Bernstein Award 2014: Young Scientists Research Award in Computational Neuroscience Objective: To support research projects in the field of Computational Neuroscience in Computational Neuroscience in the German research environment. Who May Apply: Institutions of higher education and non-university research institutions based in Germany Submission Deadline: April 15, 2014 Website: http://www.gesundheitsforschung- bmbf.de/_media/Bernstein_Award_2014_Call_ for_proposals.pdf

Biophysical Society

2014 Summer Research Program in Biophysics

May 13–July 31, 2014

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Priority Application Deadline: February 15, 2014

Interested in interdisciplinary science? Want to work in the fast growing area of biomedical research? Looking to get some hands-on lab experience this sum- mer? Check out the Summer Research Program in Biophysics, an 11 week course for undergraduate minority stu- dents at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Personal expenses, travel costs, meals, and housing are covered. Questions? Contact contact Ellen Mackall, Summer Research Program Administrator, at emackall@biophysics.org or call (240) 290-5611 . The Biophysical Society Summer Course in Biophysics: Case Studies in the Physics of Life is funded by The National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institutes of Health. [2 T36-GM075791]

Members in the News Charles M. Lieber , Harvard University and Society member since 2011, received the first Nano Research Award

sponsored by Springer and Tsinghua University Press.

Michael Levitt , Stanford University and Society Member since 2011, is the most recent recipient of the DeLano Award for Computational Biosciences from The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB).

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Upcoming Events

Biophysical Society Newsletter february 2014

April

May May 31–June 1, 2014 Novel Paradigms in Cyclic Nucleotide Signaling South Hadley, MA http://www.grc.org/programs. aspx?year=2014&program= grs_cycnuc May 27–30, 2014 The Second International Conference on Radiation and Dosimetry in Various Fields of Research (RAD 2014) Nis, Serbia http://www.rad2014.elfak.rs/ welcome.php

June

July

April 9–13, 2014 57 th  Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for Molecular Biosciences Alberta, Canada http://www.csmb-scbm.ca/ meetings/57th_Annual_ Conference.aspx April 24–25, 2014 NIMBioS Investigative Workshop: Modeling Contamination of Fresh Produce Knoxville, TN http://www.nimbios.org/ workshops/WS_produce.html

June 13–15, 2014 The Third International Conference on Analytical and Nanoanalytical Methods for Biomedical and Environmental Sciences Brasov, Romania http://icanmbes.unitbv.ro/ index.html June 15–20, 2014 The Brain: Adaptation and Maladaptation in Chronic Pain Keystone, CO http://www.keystonesymposia. org/index.cfm?e=web.Meeting. Program&meetingid=1303

July 13–18, 2014 Chemical Reactions and Energy Conversion Processes Easton, MA http://www.grc.org/programs. aspx?year=2014&program =atomic July 27–August 1, 2014 Positioning Cells in Immunity and Disease West Dover, VT http://www.grc.org/programs. aspx?year=2014&program =chemotac

Please visit www.biophysics.org for a complete list of upcoming events.