Biophysical Society 65th Annual Meeting Program Guide

Friday, February 26 1:30 PM – 2:00 PM Curi Bio Bioengineering the Cell Environment for More Mature and Predictive 2D and 3D Models Cells in the body use a variety of cues (structural, mechanical, elec- trochemical, etc.) from the extracellular matrix (ECM) to develop and mature physiologically. These influential cues help regulate a broad spectrum of processes such as cell signaling, division, and differentiation. Many in vitro platforms seek to combine and incorporate these cues into the cell’s microenvironment but often fail, suffering from lack of reproducibility and incompatibility with other well-established end-point assays. Here, we demonstrate biomimetic in vitro platforms capable of reliably reproducing these essential cues. These platforms markedly improve the structural and functional development of a variety of cell types, including stem cells, cardiomyocytes, muscle cells, and more. These cutting-edge strategies can be deployed in both 2D and 3D model systems for high- throughput assessment of metabolism, electrophysiology, and contractil- ity. We describe how the differentiation of stem cells can be enhanced by providing a more biomimetic culture environment, with a particular focus on iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes and skeletal muscle cells. Further, we highlight how an active mechanical environment combined with aligned cell-nanotopography cues improves adhesion, signaling, and polarity across many cell applications. Finally, we demonstrate how to scale these technologies to 3D organoid systems, and how these approaches can improve the development of in vitro disease models to support the dis- covery of new therapies. Speaker Hamed Ghazizadeh, Product Manager, Curi Bio

4:00 PM – 4:30 PM Molecular Devices

Streamlining Electrophysiology Data Acquisition and Analy- sis in Ion Channel Study with Axon pCLAMP 11 Software Axon pCLAMP™ 11 software suite provides ion channel researchers with greater capability in electrophysiology data acquisition and analy- sis. Recent updates to this include an improved Protocol Editor, which allows the user to more easily create complex experimental protocols with many command stimulations, as well as a new Batch Analysis fea- ture which streamlines analysis of multiple data sets. In this webinar, Dr. Jeffrey Tang will highlight these and other new features in pCLAMP 11 to streamline the data acquisition and analysis in your ion channel study, and how this software package allows you to perform more experiments and obtain more data in your electrophysiology research. Speaker Jeffrey Tang, Senior Application Scientist, Molecular Devices

127