Biophysical Society Bulletin | April 2020

Communities and Outreach

Subgroups Bioenergetics, Mitochondria and Metabolism

The 2020 Young Bioenergeticist Award nominees included a co- hort of very talented young scientists, making the judges’ choice all the more difficult. Eventually, the prize went to Ambre Bertholet (University of California, San Francisco), and was well-deserved for her contribution to understanding mitochondrial thermogen- esis in beige adipocytes, and the discovery of a novel mechanism involving a futile creatine cycle. Newly elected Co-chairs in our Subgroup are Evgeny Pavlov (New York University) and Uwe Schlat- tner (University of Grenoble). Nelli Mnatsakanyan was elected to the Executive Committee. — Miguel Aon and György Csordás , Subgroup Co-chairs Biopolymers In Vivo I am excited to see how this Subgroup has grown significantly over the past couple of years. Aiming to bridge between the cel- lular andmolecular levels, this highly diverse and inclusive group of researchers is interested in how physical and biochemical principles govern the behavior of biological polymers in cells. In the Subgroupmeeting program, we make a special effort to bring together theory, computation, and experiments. At this year’s meeting, we had a wonderful range of topics and techniques that highlighted this diversity. I would like to see our Subgroup expand to include evenmore sci- entists at all stages of their studies and careers, and to forge ties in our community that go beyond the BPS Annual Meeting. We all can do this through our social media presence (@bioplymrsinvivo on Twitter, Biopolymers in vivo on Facebook), proposing candi- dates for and supporting our Subgroup’s Young Faculty Award, getting involved in the different roles of the Subgroupmanag- ing council, and of course, by choosing to be a member of the Subgroup when you renew your membership before next year’s meeting! Many thanks go out to all those involved inmaking this year’s Subgroupmeeting such a success, and warmest congrat- ulations to Shana Elbaum-Garfinkle for receiving this year’s Young Faculty Award. Finally, please get involved and keep in touch, bivsubgroup@gmail.com. — Daniel Harries , Chair Macromolecular Machines & Assemblies The Subgroup had a very exciting program at this year’s BPS An- nual Meeting in San Diego. We heard fantastic talks that spanned from in-cell protein structure analysis using NMR spectroscopy, to single-molecule protein sequencing and DNAmass photome- try, tomechanisms of CRISPR-Cas9 cleavage, andmore. Edwin Antony fromSt. Louis University School of Medicine was elected Vice-chair of the Subgroup. At the business meeting,

We witnessed exciting new developments inmitochondrial ion transport and bioenergetics during our well-attended symposium “Mitochondrial Ion Channels” on Subgroup Saturday (February 15) at the Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society in San Diego. Novel mitochondrial potassium and chloride transporters were presented by Diego De Stefani (University of Padova) and Har- preet Singh (Ohio State University), respectively. Shey-Shing Sheu (Thomas Jefferson University) talked about multiple calcium influx mechanisms inmitochondria. Steven Sollott (NIA/NIH) present- ed a putative novel role of potassium-driven ATP synthesis by the mitochondrial ATP synthase, followed by talks from Nelli Mnatsakanyan (Yale University) and Jason Karch (Baylor College Medicine) on the role of ATP synthase and the adenine nucleo- tide translocator in the mitochondrial permeability transition, as assessed from structural and genetic standpoints, respectively. A symposium “Mitochondrial CalciumFluxes,” which had been suggested to the BPSMeeting ProgramCommittee by our Subgroup, was held the next day. Elizabeth Jonas (Yale University), Paolo Bernardi (University of Padova), and Elizabeth Murphy (NIH/ NHLBI) presented different aspects of the calcium-activatedmi- tochondrial permeability transition, while Gyorgy Csordas (Thomas Jefferson University) talked about the submitochondrial distribu- tion of calcium transport. Overall, new ideas and knowledge emerged from these 2020 symposia, opening new vistas for basic research in areas that need further attention, such as mitochondrial calcium, potassium and chloride transports, as well as the regulation and identity of the permeability transition pore.

Ambre Bertholet receiving the 2020 Young Bioenergeticist Award from previous Subgroup Co-chair Karin Busch.

April 2020

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