Biophysical Society Bulletin | December 2025

Biophysical Society Thematic Meeting

This highly interdisciplinary Thematic Meeting brings together basic science with cutting edge applications to study neurological disorders, brain disease, and cell signaling pathways implicated in drug addiction. The central theme of the meeting is the study of membrane reactions that are part of cellular signaling pathways implicated in brain physiology and disease. The key topics that we will address in the meeting include (i) the dynamic assembly and interactions of signaling complexes at membrane interfaces of the brain; (ii) transport of cargo within cells by motor proteins; (iii) transport of therapeutic cargo to cells; (iv) optogenetics and photo-pharmacology applications to study neurological disorders; (v) neuronal circuits and how these respond to environmental stress; (vi) fundamental aspects of membranes and membrane reactions, from experi mental and computational perspectives; and (vii) cellular signaling pathways of membrane-bound receptor kinases and G-Protein Coupled Receptors. Neurological disorders, brain disease, and drug addiction inflict tremendous personal suffering and financial costs. The highly complex cellular signaling pathways involved in these conditions involve multiple protein partners and other cellular components that interact with each other, and studies of model systems that focus on isolated or reduced components may provide somewhat limited information for how the signaling complex assembles and functions. The timely Biophysical Society Thematic Meeting Biophysics of Membrane Reac tions in the Brain brings together biologists, chemists, physicists, and computa tional scientists, who will address cutting-edge advances in experimental and computational approaches that bring within reach the development of realistic models of entire cellular signaling pathways. Biophysics of Membrane Reactions in the Brain Bucharest, Romania | May 11-14, 2026

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE Ana-Nicoleta Bondar , University of Bucharest, Romania Kumiko Hayashi , University of Tokyo, Japan Kalina Hristova , Johns Hopkins University, USA

SPEAKERS Hossein Batebi , Freie Universität Berlin, Germany Eric Beitz , University of Kiel, Germany

Matthias Buck , Case Western Reserve University, USA Paolo Carloni , Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany Christoph Fahlke , Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany Ran Friedman , Linnaeus University, Sweden Martina Havenith , Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany Joachim Heberle , Freie Universität Berlin, Germany Keiichi Inoue , The University of Tokyo, Japan Kota Katayama , Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan Daniel Korczak , University of Maryland, USA Andrei Marasoiu , University of Bucharest, Romania Rohit Menon , University of Regensburg, Germany Konstantin Mineev , Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany Herbert Nar , Boehringer Ingelheim, Germany Masha Niv , The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel Przemyslaw Nogly , Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland Ingela Parmryd , University of Gothenburg, Sweden Gabriela Popescu , University at Buffalo, USA Valerica Raicu , University of Wisconsin, USA Gebhard Schertler , Paul Scherrer Institut, Switzerland Jana Selent , University of Pompeu Fabra, Spain Durba Sengupta , CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, India Tomohiro Shima , The University of Tokyo, Japan John Straub , Boston University, USA Florence Tama , Nagoya University, Japan Marco Terenzio , Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Japan Ching-Ju Tsai , Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland Satoshi Tsunoda , Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan Marçal Vilar , Instituto de Biomedicina de Valencia, Spain

Gregory Voth , University of Chicago, USA William Wimley , Tulane University, USA

Abstract Submission Deadline: February 9, 2026 Early Registration Deadline: March 9, 2026

December 2025 For more information, visit www.biophysics.org

18

THE NEWSLETTER OF THE BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY