Biophysical Society Bulletin | April 2024

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Call for BPS Ambassador Applications

Are you an advocate for biophysics education and knowledge sharing? Have you considered applying for the BPS Ambassador Program to put those skills into action? The BPS Ambassador Program was developed to help make bio physics a more dynamic, inclusive, and interdisciplinary community to better serve the needs of our international membership. Currently, BPS works with 12 Ambassadors—four-member cohorts serving three-year terms. For the next class of Ambassadors (2025–2027), we are accepting applica tions from all international members residing in countries outside of India, Japan, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Türkiye, United Arab Emirates, and Urugay.

Ambassador Program

Empowering Biophysics Globally

An ideal country Ambassador is actively engaged in biophysics research and committed to remaining in the field for the dura tion of the Ambassadorship, an active paid member of the Society in good standing, able to attend the Annual Meeting at the start of their term, has working proficiency in English, and has a demonstrated ability to contribute to organizations or scien tific societies outside of their normal job duties. To learn more about the program, Ambassador eligibility, and benefits, please visit www.biophysics.org/outreach/ambassador-program. Applications are due by July 19.

Senator Joni Ernst Takes Aim at U.S.-China Collaboration

International Panel Calls for Increased Oversight on Pathogens In a report issued on February 28, the Pathogens Project—an independent international task force—called on governments to increase oversight of research on microbes that could cause a future pandemic. The report acknowledges that re search on dangerous human pathogens is essential to protect people from epidemics and pandemics, but that safety rules for such work need to be tighter and more consistent. The project also addressed concerns about so-called gain-of function (GOF) studies. The recommendations included in the report endorse a proposal from the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity for reviewing rules for taxpayer-funded GOF studies to expand the definition of a potential pandem ic pathogen to include moderately virulent or transmissible viruses. The report also recommends that proposed studies on both natural and manipulated pandemic pathogens be done only if safer, alternative methods, such as studying the properties of a virus’ surface proteins, aren’t sufficient. But the panel stopped short of ruling out work with dangerous live viruses or even GOF studies on potential pandemic patho gens.

On January 14, Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) sent a letter to the head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regard ing collaborative research on avian flu being conducting by scientists at the United Kingdom’s Roslin Institute and China’s Institute of Microbiology. Using a $1 million grant issued in 2020, the research focused on understanding the evolution of newly emerged avian flu viruses. Ernst cited the use of “gain of-function” techniques allowing the virus to more easily jump from species to species. The lead researchers from U.S., United Kingdom, and Chi nese labs involved in the USDA grant allege that there is a significant amount of misinformation presented in the Ernst letter. They noted that there was no specific transmission of reagents or materials between the labs as part of the collab orative research. In addition, the USDA specifically noted that all funding for the grant was being used solely in the United States and that the allegations being made grossly mischar acterize the research being conducted. While the debate around what constitutes a gain-of-function study isn’t new within the scientific community, it and the po litical spotlight on research collaborations with China remain politically intense.

April 2024

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