Biophysical Society Bulletin | January 2020

Communities

Membrane Fusion, Fission & Traffic Subgroup

fusion events and the workings of multiple synaptic inputs in networks. They elucidated a shuttle mechanism for exci- tation-transcription coupling by which calcium influx through L-type voltage-gated calcium channels triggers translocation of calcium/calmodulin to the nucleus. They demonstrated novel aspects of homeostatic synaptic plasticity, involving changes in levels of CaMKII isoforms, alterations in vesicle release probability, swapping of glutamate receptors, and coordination between postsynaptic and presynaptic changes, mechanisms showing partial overlap with Hebbian synaptic plasticity. They investigated the pathophysiology of cardiac and brain diseases and actions of agents of possible thera- peutic benefit, including Prialt for pain, oxytocin for autism, and cannabidiol for epilepsy. Please join us for the Subgroup meeting on Saturday, February 15, 2020 in San Diego, CA. — Ling-Gang Wu , Chair Physical Cell Biology Subgroup The Cell Biophysics Subgroup has a new name—Physical Cell Biology—but our goals remain the same: we’re bringing together scientists who use biophysical studies to probe the structures, functions, dynamics, and interactions of macro- molecules inside living cells. We look forward to seeing you at our Subgroup symposium on the morning of Saturday, Feb- ruary 15, 2020, beginning at 9:00 AM. We have put together an outstanding program; three contributed talks are being selected from the abstracts as this issue of the Bulletin goes to press and the invited talks are listed below. • Megan Valentine (UCSB) “Force Sensing and Regulation in Tissues – from Aggregates to Organisms” • Christine Jacobs-Wagner (Stanford) “Biophysical Properties of the Bacterial Cytoplasm” • Rob Phillips (Caltech) “Schrödinger’s What is Life? at 75: The Physical Aspects of the Living Cell Revisited” • Antoine van Oijen (Wollongong University) “Tackling Anti- microbial Resistance One Molecule at a Time” Please join us for this wonderful symposium (9 AM-noon)! We will also introduce our newly elected officers at the 12 PM business meeting. Finally, all Subgroup members are invited to attend a recep- tion on the evening of February 15 at no additional cost, so do encourage your friends and colleagues to join the Physical Cell Biology Subgroup. Visit https:/www.biophysics.org/sub- groups/physical-cell-biology. We look forward to seeing you in San Diego this February! — Julie Biteen , Chair

Richard Tsien will deliver the Katz Award lecture regarding calcium channel regulation and trafficking of both pre- and postsynaptic vesicles during the 2020 Membrane Fusion, Fission & Traffic Subgroup meeting. Born in Tating (Kweichow Province), China, Tsien studied electrical engi- neering at MIT, receiving a bache- lor degree followed by a master’s degree based on spectroscopy of conducting organic polymers at GE research labs in Schenectady. As a

Richard Tsien

Rhodes Scholar and Weir Junior Fellow at University College Oxford, Tsien graduated with a PhD in biophysics in 1970. His doctoral thesis with Denis Noble described ionic currents that support the cardiac action potential repolarization and repetitive firing. Joining forces with Julian Jack (a cellular neurophysiologist), Noble and Tsien produced a book, Electric Current Flow in Excitable Cells . During this period, Tsien had brief interactions with Alan Hodgkin , Andrew Huxley , and Ber- nard Katz , and Katz’s primer Nerve Muscle Synapse awakened interest in mechanisms of presynaptic Ca2+ entry, vesicle fusion, transmitter release, and postsynaptic action. Inspired by his excellent mentors, Tsien has fostered the careers of many neuroscientists over five decades at Oxford, Yale, Stanford, and New York Universities. At each place, Tsien was part of a lively community interested in topics of this Sub- group, including control of ion flux, membrane fusion, fission, and traffic. Tsien is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the Academia Sinica. His past honors include the Cole Medal, the Palade Medal, the Cartwright Prize, the Annual Review Prize of the Physiological Society, and the Julius Axelrod and Ralph W. Gerard Prizes of the Society for Neuroscience. Since 2012, he has served as the Founder and Director of the Neuroscience Institute at the NYU Langone Medical Center. Over the course of his career, Tsien and colleagues have helped delineate the family tree of vertebrate calcium chan- nels, discovering N-type channels as distinct from T- and L-type channels, and later R-type channels as different from N- or P/Q-type. They described the mechanism by which cal- cium channels manage to be extremely selective for Ca 2+ yet highly permeant. They showed that calcium channel antag- onists and agonists and other modulators work in large part by shifting patterns of channel opening and closing, dubbed ”modes” of gating. With Harald Reuter’s group, they described molecular aspects of Ca2+ channel inactivation and facili- tation, critical features of calcium channels driven by both membrane depolarization and intracellular Ca2+ itself. His lab developed new optical approaches to peer into single vesicle

January 2020

15

T H E N E W S L E T T E R O F T H E B I O P H Y S I C A L S O C I E T Y