Biophysical Society Bulletin | April 2026

Annual Meeting

2026 Undergraduate Poster Award Competition Winners The 10 winners of the annual Undergraduate Poster Award Competition (UPAC) were recognized at the 70th Biophysical Society Annual Meeting Awards Ceremony on February 23, 2026. Judges from every career level selected these students for their outstanding presentations during the poster compe tition. A total of 71 students participated in the competition. The winners are: Colin Frank , University of Florida, USA Molecular Mechanisms of TRPM1 Regulation by Heterotrimeric G-Protein Alice Walker , Williams College, USA Mechanistic Influence of pH, Lipid Composition, and Small Mole cule Inhibitors on Dengue Virus Membrane Fusion Julian Chen , Swarthmore College, USA Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Reveals Concentration-Dependent Assembly of a Bacterial Amyloid Jenson Aaron , University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA Sex- and Age-Dependent Mechanisms of the Mechano-Chrono tropic Response in the Sinoatrial Node Soleil Chung , University of Arizona, USA Deciphering Retinal Orientation and Dynamics in Rhodopsin with Deuterium NMR and Quantum Mechanical Calculations Alexander Holloway , University of Texas at Austin, USA HaloTag-Based Approach to Quantify Subcellular Localization of TRPV3 Channel Kieran Fruebis , University of Washington, USA Structural Dynamics of Myosin Loop 2 as a Regulator of Actomy osin Interaction Iren Saffarian-Deemyad , Stanford University, USA Single-Molecule Measurements of an Ancestral RNA-Guided Nuclease Reveal R-Loop Dynamics, Discrete Intermediates, and Mechanisms of Improved Variants Ronan Tia , Stony Brook University, USA Object Engulfment by Cellular Aggregates (“Spherophagy”): Com putational Simulations with Applications to Destruction of Solid Tumors Rajiv Venkatesh , University of Chicago, USA Investigating the Role of the HFLK/C-FTSH Protease Complex on Membrane Modulation and State Transition in E. coli Using Molec ular Dynamics Simulation

Daryna Sputay , University of Virginia, USA The Functional Role of Localized Plasma Membrane Scrambling in Immune Cell Activation Membrane Transport Subgroup Peixuan Yu , Michigan State University, USA Structure and Functional Characterization of the Human Prosta glandin Transporter (PGT) Sarah McGuinness , University of Illinois at Chicago, USA Computational Scanning of Pore-Lining Residues in Claudin-15 Ion Channels and Their Effect on Channel Selectivity Motility and Cytoskeleton Subgroup Adam Decker , University of Michigan, USA Resolving the Organization and Dynamics of Membrane-Proximal Actin in Live Cells Maryum Irshad , University of Cincinnati, USA A Machine Learning Approach to Extracting Protein-Protein Bind ing Energies from Molecular Dynamics Simulations Nanoscale Approaches to Biology Subgroup Yongsuk Lee , Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST), South Korea Molecular Contact Map of Biomolecular Condensates Shows Connectivity Giving Rise to Mechanical Properties Nicole Voce , Northeastern University, USA Molecular Biophysics: A Quantum Sensing Approach Physical Cell Biology Subgroup Shi Yu William Guo , Scripps Research Institute, USA Developing an Assay to Quantitatively Measure Protein-RNA Interactions in the Cellular Context Yuyi Zhang , University of California, San Diego, USA The Endoplasmic Reticulum as an Intracellular Transport Hub— From Contact Sites to Ca²⁺ Refill Single-Molecule Forces, Manipulation, and Visualization Subgroup Alyssa Gonneville , University of Tennessee, USA Single-Molecule Visualization of Function-Related Dynamics of the Human Stimulatory G-Alpha Protein Peter Murray , Johns Hopkins University, USA Light-Activated CRISPR for On-Demand Perturbation of Chromatin Insulators Theory and Computation Subgroup Sophia Alvarez , University of Texas at Dallas, USA Rational Sequence Evolution from an Epistatic Model Produces Well Characterized Variants with Specified Antibiotic Resistances Bryan Gworek , University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA Modeling-Informed Experiments Capture Arc-Lipid Interactions Critical to Intercellular Communication

April 2026

13

THE NEWSLETTER OF THE BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY