Biophysical Society Bulletin | December 2023

Publications

Know the Editor Manu Ben-Johny Columbia University

Editor’s Pick

Editor, Channels, Transporters, and Receptors Biophysical Journal

Manu Ben-Johny

What are you currently working on that excites you? Trained as an engineer, I have always been fascinated by computational protein design. The notion that computers could generate protein sequences that are functional almost sounds like science fiction. Recently, when I learned about some of the new algorithms that have been developed, we wanted to try it for some ion channels that were close to our heart. To our surprise, when we experimentally tested some of the very first designs, they seemed to have worked! This is very exciting to me. I feel there is immense potential for this technology. It may open new avenues to unravel the physiol ogy of ion channels or perhaps even develop new therapies. How do you stay on top of all the latest developments in your field? It used to be that I would scour various journals (including Biophysical Journal ) or search PubMed to learn about the latest publications. Funnily enough, increasingly I find that social media apps like X (formerly Twitter) or LinkedIn are also pretty good avenues to stay up to date. This is particularly true as scientists are increasingly depositing preprints on BioRxiv and other repositories and posting about them on social media. I feel that I have not only learned about studies in my field, but also read a lot of fascinating stories outside of my field that I probably would have missed otherwise.

Biophysical Journal Vesicle budding caused by lysolipid-induced asymmetry stress Lisa Hua, Michael Kaiser, Iulia Carabadjac, Annette Meister, Gerd Hause, and Heiko Heerklotz “The asymmetric incorporation of compounds into the lipid membrane causes asymmetry stress, which is involved in membrane remodeling processes and is discussed as a mode of action of antimicrobial peptides. The authors studied ves icle budding and fission as one out of several mechanisms of asymmetry stress relaxation. They quantify, for what they be lieve to be the first time, three key parameters of additive-in duced budding: threshold asymmetry, budding activity/power, and budding limit. This offers an answer to the question of which relaxation mechanism actually takes place: budding has a lower threshold than other mechanisms and keeps asym metry stress very low, but reaches its limit as the excess area of the liposomes is ‘used up.’ Then, other mechanisms have to kick in.”

Version of Record Published August 29, 2023 DOI: https:/doi.org/10.1016/j.bpj.2023.08.023

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December 2023

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