Biophysical Society Bulletin | January 2022

January 2022

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Pursuing Excellence and Inclusion in BPS Awards Recognizing a member as a BPS Awardee or Fellow is one important way that the Biophysical Society honors excellence and affirms our community. A critical component of our awards program is that it is a reflection of our values, which include diversity, equity, and inclusion. That said, we bestow awards or fellow designations only on those who are nominated, and nominations do not always reflect the diversity of the Society. Women comprise just over one third of BPS members. Thanks to the efforts of a subcommittee from the Committee on Professional Development for Women, over the past two years, we have seen an increase in the number of nominations of women for Society Awards and BPS Fellows. However, we still have work to do to make sure nominations include increasing numbers of excellent women biophysicists every year. Similarly, BPS is an international organization with more than a third of our members residing outside the United States, but fewer than 20% of the nominations for Awards and Fellows in 2022 were for international members. So many of our interna- tional members make excellent contributions to biophysics, but we cannot recognize them with Society Awards if they are not nominated! People of color and members of other marginalized demo- graphic groups are likewise underrepresented in nominations and, therefore, as award winners. We must pursue the recogni- tion of excellence and inclusion together and nominate deserv- ing colleagues from all backgrounds. As the nominations for 2023 Society Awards and Fellows open, who will you put forth to recognize, honor, and represent the best of BPS? Nominations are due May 1, 2022, but don’t de- lay. Visit www.biophysics.org/awards-funding/society-awards and nominate the best of BPS today!

Nominations NowOpen for 2023 Society Awards

The Biophysical Society (BPS) is accepting nominations for its 2023 awards, now through May 1, 2022. Awards to be bestowed in this cycle include:

The Anatrace Membrane Protein Award , which recognizes an outstanding investigator who has made a significant contribution to the field of membrane protein research; The Avanti Award in Lipids , given to an investigator for out- standing contributions to our understanding of lipid biophysics; The Michael and Kate Bárány Award for young investigators, which recognizes an outstanding contribution to biophysics by a person who has not achieved the rank of full professor at the time of nomination; The BPS Award in the Biophysics of Health and Disease , honor- ing a significant contribution to understanding the fundamental cause or pathogenesis of disease, or to enabling the treatment or prevention of a disease; The BPS Innovation Award , recognizing a BPS member who advances our fundamental understanding of biological systems through the development of novel theory, models, concepts, techniques, or applications; The Margaret Oakley Dayhoff Award , given to a woman who holds very high promise or has achieved prominence while devel- oping the early stages of a career in biophysical research within the purview and interest of the Biophysical Society; Continued on Page 3

Inside Subgroups Biophysicist in Profile

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Career Development

Stay Connected with BPS

Grants and Opportunities

Public Affairs Member Corner Student Spotlight

Annual Meeting Communities

Obituaries

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Publications

Important Dates

Subgroups

The Vitality of Subgroups Subgroup Saturday is the first introduction to the Biophysical Society (BPS) Annual Meeting that many of us experience. Importantly, these Subgroups represent our homes in BPS where we catch up on the latest results and meet up with friends and colleagues in our research area. But what ex- actly is the role of Subgroups, and how did they come to be? Subgroups are specialized groups focused on a technique or an area of research, and many Subgroups were established to bring emerging areas into the Society. Currently there are 18 Subgroups in BPS. Membership in one Subgroup is included with Society membership, but members can choose to join as many other Subgroups as they wish for only $10 per Sub- group. To foster curiosity and broader engagement, Emeritus and Student members may join as many Subgroups as they like for free. In addition to the lively research talks and the business meet- ing, many Subgroups present awards during their symposia to honor lifetime achievements or rising stars. Many Subgroups also host a dinner on Saturday evening for either their broad membership or for the symposium speakers. The Subgroups also identify volunteers to serve as judges for the Student Research Achievement Award (SRAA) competition, which recognizes top graduate students in their field. Since the pandemic, several Subgroups have engaged their member- ship throughout the year by organizing virtual seminars and journal clubs. It is easy to get involved in the leadership of the Subgroups, even if you are a more junior member. Every November to December, the current Subgroup leadership puts out calls for nominations for leadership positions. These new leaders help keep Subgroups vibrant. Consider nominating yourself or a colleague who you think will actively engage with the Subgroup membership and develop an exciting program. Subgroup leadership is also an excellent stepping stone to other avenues of Society engagement, such as committees and Council. How long have Subgroups been around? The BPS Office archives show that Subgroups met as early as 1971. The six Subgroups at that time included Photochemistry & Photobiol-

ogy, Membrane Structure, Bioenergetics, Muscle Contractility, Social Responsibility of Scientists, and Biology of Survival. Twenty years later, in 1991, there were only five Subgroups: Bioenergetics, Contractility, Membrane Biophysics, Molecular Biophysics, and Biology of Survival. Subgroup Saturday did not become a regular feature of the BPS Annual Meeting until 1999. By 2011, there were 11 Subgroups, and another seven have been added in the past decade. Subgroups have a strong history of exciting programs and outstanding speakers. With the growth in the number of Subgroups, changes were needed to better support their administration and logistics. In 2019, the then-15 Subgroups participated in a process to streamline their bylaws and elections as well as review and potentially update their names to better differentiate them- selves to members. In parallel, the structure of Subgroup Saturday was revisited to account for the growing number of Subgroups and limitations due to convention center space. We moved to a schedule that alternated morning and after- noon sessions for the four-hour Subgroup symposia (except for the Cryo-EM Subgroup symposium, which is held in the evening on Subgroup Saturday). In the past two years, we have added three additional Sub- groups for a total of 18, which has led to additional spatial and temporal logistical limitations with respect to staff support and convention center space. To address these issues, Council requested the formation of a Subgroup Task Force in June 2021 to examine the number of Subgroups and best practices, con- sider member feedback, and provide recommendations in sup- port of a vibrant Subgroup program. We would like to recognize the thoughtful discussions of the Task Force, which included Sarah Veatch , Uwe Schlattner , Michelle Digman , Jeremy Dittman , Kalina Hristova , and Erin Sheets , along with staff support from Stacey Wendelbo and Jennifer Pesanelli . At the Fall Council Meeting that was held in late October 2021, Council approved the following recommendations from the Subgroup Task Force: limit the total number of Subgroups to 18, annually evaluate Subgroups using a quantitative report card, provide a best practice guide to Subgroup chairs, support emerging research areas with an incubator program, and require new Subgroup applications to critically analyze the proposed topic’s relationship to existing Subgroups.

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Subgroups

Officers President Frances Separovic President-Elect Gail Robertson Past-President Catherine A. Royer Secretary Erin Sheets Treasurer Samantha Harris Council Henry Colecraft Michelle A. Digman Erin C. Dueber Marta Filizola Gilad Haran Kumiko Hayashi Francesca Marassi

The annual report card assesses the health of the Subgroups using parameters such as ac- tivities, participation, symposium attendance, membership, and finances. The idea is to track Subgroup performance over time. If, for exam- ple, grades are poor over a two- to three-year period, Council may decide to put a Subgroup on probation or even eventually sunset an underperforming Subgroup. The incubator program is envisioned as a mechanism to explore new topic areas and determine whether there are opportunities within an existing Subgroup to foster an ad hoc group or to see whether a new Subgroup might emerge. Ad hoc groups can run incubator events for two years to demonstrate contin-

ued, sustained interest in the topic before pur- suing Subgroup status. The incubator program could also be used to support groups focused not on a specific scientific topic but on another shared interest or demographic. All these recommendations are intended to help ensure sustainability and viability of a strong Subgroup program well into the future. We look forward to seeing you in San Francisco on Subgroup Saturday (https:/www.biophysics. org/2022meeting/program/subgroup-satur- day) and for the rest of the Annual Meeting! — Erin Sheets , Secretary — Jennifer Pesanelli , Executive Officer BPS Job Board Special Post your job and save! In celebration of the Society’s Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California on February 19-23, 2022, BPS is offering you a 60-day job posting for just $199 for members or $299 for nonmembers. This includes unlimited access to the resume bank. Job posting must be purchased by January 31, 2022. For additional details, please visit www.biophysics-jobs.careerwebsite.com.

Susan Marqusee Joseph A. Mindell Carolyn A. Moores Kandice Tanner Biophysical Journal Vasanthi Jayaraman Editor-in-Chief The Biophysicist Sam Safran Editor-in-Chief Biophysical Reports

Jörg Enderlein Editor-in-Chief

Society Office Jennifer Pesanelli Executive Officer Newsletter Executive Editor Jennifer Pesanelli Managing Editor John Long

Continued from Page 1

The Emily M. Gray Award , given for significant contributions to education in biophysics, which may include classroom instruction, mentoring research scientists, developing novel educational methods or materials, promoting outreach to the public or youth, attracting new students to the biophysics field and fostering an exceptionally conducive environment for biophysics education; The Kazuhiko Kinosita Award in Single-Molecule Biophysics , recognizing outstanding research- ers for their exceptional contributions in advancing the field of single-molecule biophysics; The Ignacio Tinoco Award , which honors meritorious investigators who make important contri- butions to the physical chemistry of macromolecules; The Founders Award , given to scientists for outstanding achievement in any area of biophysics; And the 2023 Fellows of the Biophysical Society , honoring distinguished members who have demonstrated sustained scientific excellence. Awards will be presented at the 2023 Biophysical Society Annual Meeting in San Diego, California. For information and to submit a nomination, visit www.biophysics.org/awards-funding/ society-awards.

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The Biophysical Society Newsletter (ISSN 0006-3495) is published eleven times per year, January-December, by the Biophysical Society, 5515 Security Lane, Suite 1110, Rockville, Maryland 20852. Distributed to USA members and other countries at no cost. Cana- dian GST No. 898477062. Postmaster: Send address changes to Biophysical Society, 5515 Security Lane, Suite 1110, Rockville, MD 20852. Copyright © 2022 by the Biophysical Society.

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Biophysicist in Profile

Samuel Cho Area of Research:

Institution Wake Forest University

Coarse-grained and atomistic biomolecular molecular dy- namics (MD) simulations and graphics processor unit (GPU) algorithm optimization

At-a-Glance

Samuel Cho , Associate Professor of Physics and Computer Science at Wake Forest University, moved around a lot as a child, spending his longest stretches in one place in rural and suburban Maryland. His parents each emigrated from South Korea separately, then met and married in the United States before having Cho and his brother.

Samuel Cho

“Growing up, I always thought my upbringing was pretty unique, but there was recently a movie called Minari about a Korean-American family in rural America that won the Golden Globe Best Picture Award. When the trailer first came out, I thought maybe someone out there owed my family royalties,” Samuel Cho jokes. “It turns out that the movie was not all that similar to my own life, so I’m not expecting a fat check anytime soon.” His father was a construction worker. “Many times, when we drove through Tysons Corner, Virginia, my father pointed out a few high-rise buildings that he and his older brother helped build in some capacity,” he shares. Cho’s mother was a nurse, though he says, “I think it’s fair to say that she always dreamed of doing something else. In particular, she really wanted to be a naval engineer because she was excellent at math throughout her schooling. She was my first real inspira- tion for math.” While his parents were working, he was cared for by his grandmother. “She raised four children, including my mother, on her own after her husband passed away from cancer. She supported her children by making and selling the most delicious ‘dduk,’ a traditional Korean type of rice cakes, so I suppose there was a good bit of chemistry there,” he con- tinues. “My family has always had an abundance of encour- agement and support even when I struggle to explain what I do in science. I later learned that a supportive family is a great buffer for ‘imposter syndrome,’ which is pretty common in science.” One of his earliest science memories was weekly trips to the local planetarium in Frederick, Maryland with his father and brother “to see the planets in our solar system in their grand show,” he says. “For some reason, even though we kept see- ing the same exact show every time, we never got bored.” He also recalls many excellent science teachers including his high school physics teacher Mrs. Deslattes, “who helped me get college credit via her Advanced Placement course right before she retired,” he shares. “Unfortunately, I lost touch with her, which is really too bad because I know she would have been super proud to see that I ended up as a physics professor.”

In college at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Cho’s major advisor was former Biophysical Society (BPS) president Dorothy Beckett . “I was a biochemistry major, and I had just declared a computer science major, too. She asked me why I was taking computer science courses, and I simply responded: ‘for fun.’ She asked me if I ever thought about doing research and suggested that I check out Alex Mackerell at University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, and that’s how I started doing computational biophysics—a subject I didn’t even know existed,” he says. “I still continue to see Dorothy at the BPS meetings. When she introduces me, she—rightful- ly!—claims credit for getting me started in biophysics.” Cho sought out Mackerell at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy on Beckett’s suggestion and had a fruitful and inspiring research experience in his lab. Shortly after graduating, Cho married his wife Sandra, and they moved together across the country to La Jolla, California. He entered a chemistry PhD program at the University of California, San Diego. “I did research with Peter Wolynes on protein folding, binding, and aggregation using mostly coarse-grained models based on the Energy Landscape Theory, and we wrote several papers with José Onuchic and Elizabeth Komives ,” he relates. “In addition to being a great scientist of the highest caliber, Peter has an amazing sense of humor. I now repeat a good number of his jokes in my own lectures. Also, many of my papers continue to have ‘Easter eggs’ in them, and that was largely because of Peter who encouraged it,” he says. “In fact, one of our papers has a quote from one of the Dirty Harry movies that somehow got through the editors. We were not always successful getting our Easter eggs past the editors, but it was always fun trying.” He also enjoyed working with Yaakov Levy , then a postdoc with Wolynes and Onuchic, and Diego Ferreiro , then a postdoc with Wolynes and Komives. “One of my proudest accomplish- ments as a graduate student during that time, which I still cite on my CV, is a university-wide Graduate TA Excellence Award thanks to my experience in Katja Lindenberg ’s Physical Chem-

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Biophysicist in Profile

puting, and we started a collaboration with Amitabh Vashney of University of Maryland Department of Computer Science to see whether it would be feasible to perform MD simulations in GPUs, and the answer turned out to be yes.” Cho is now at Wake Forest University, a primarily undergrad- uate institution with graduate programs. He has a unique joint appointment in the Departments of Physics and Com- puter Science. He is an associate professor and serves as the Graduate Director of the Computer Science Department’s MS degree program. “My research group developed coarse-grained MD simulation software that was optimized for the GPU using new parallel algorithms, and we applied it to protein-nanoparticle as- sembly, a first in the field. We have also studied tRNA folding mechanisms that are parallel and sometimes involve nonpro- ductive intermediate states,” he explains. “In a recent paper, we modeled DNA and RNA G-quadruplexes that are import- ant for ribosome assembly, and we believe that they could be important anticancer targets.” “I think the best advice I can give to those just starting their careers is to actively search out and attend free food events. This sounds like a joke—and it is, sort of—but it turned out to be one of my most valuable scientific strategies,” he shares. “Most free food events tend to be well organized (which is why they can afford the free food in the first place). Also, great scientists of all stripes cannot easily pass up free food, so it is a good opportunity to interact with your colleagues. Finally, food seems to be one of the few things in the world that binds people of so many different backgrounds together. While we may not all eat the same types of food, all of us eat, and everyone is happy to share a meal with others. There’s never a better time to talk about science.”

istry class,” he explains. “Not everyone knows that she holds a very high bar for teaching because of her impressive research and service accomplishments, and I’m glad that I was able to learn how to teach from her example.” After his graduate studies, he started looking into postdoc- toral opportunities. “When it came time to move on, I was looking at potential postdoctoral advisors, and I remember noticing that Dave Thirumalai at University of Maryland, Col- lege Park was not only doing great work on RNA folding (in addition to protein folding and aggregation, polymer physics, glass transitions, etc.), he had an amazing alumni list of for- mer postdocs and graduate students who became professors. I emailed him, he said yes, and my wife and I were back to the East Coast,” Cho says. “One of the secrets to Dave’s success was the fact that he often took his graduate students and postdocs to lunch when he was in town. Much of that time was also just shooting the breeze about what was going on in our lives or fierce but friendly political debates. After lunch is when the science really started in earnest. I did not realize it at the time, but it is important to build these soft skills and encourage comradery in a research group. It became much easier to ask group members for help or offer it when appro- priate.” While he was in Thirumalai’s lab, they wrote “several great papers including a coarse-grained MD simulation of RNA pseudoknot folding where we predicted the folding rate, and it was later confirmed by experiment. We collaborated with Eda Koculi and Sarah Woodson of Johns Hopkins University to describe an RNA that forms secondary and tertiary structure concurrently, unlike most RNA that form secondary structure before tertiary structures,” he says. “We also wrote a paper on TMAO interactions with proteins in collaboration with John Straub , Boston University. This was also the time when GPUs started to become very popular for high-performance com-

BPS Announces New Student Chapters The Biophysical Society is proud to welcome six new chapters into the Student Chapter community! These students will join 40 established chapters around the world in growing the next generation of biophysicists: • Uganda Student Chapter • Milano Student Chapter • Cedarville University Interested in becoming a member of your local student chapter? Visit www.biophysics.org/student-chapters to find the chap- ter closest to you. Are you a mentor or student interested in growing biophysics education and career opportunities at your institution? If the an- swer is yes, the next call for Student Chapters will open March 15, 2022. Visit www.biophysics.org/student-chapters to learn more. • Cornell University • University of California, Los Angeles • University of Chile

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Public Affairs

Meet the NewBPS Ambassadors

What are your Ambassador Program goals? I hope to develop better connections between biophysics in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region with the North Amer- ican/European biophysical communities and to expand the international reach of BPS. I also want to provide better op- portunities for the next generation of biophysicists from our region to connect in with the international community and to strengthen my own connections with the BPS community. Tell us something fun about yourself I love to travel! This is a good thing when you live in Australia, as everything is so far away. I have really missed traveling during the pandemic to catch up with colleagues around the world to discuss biophysics. Donald C. Chang China What do you do professionally? During the 1970s and 1980s, I conducted research at the Baylor College of Medicine and the Marine Biological Labora- tory at Woods Hole. In 1991, I joined the Hong Kong Univer- sity of Science and Technology (HKUST) as a founding faculty member. Currently, I am Professor Emeritus at HKUST. My research interest is very broad, including biophysics, biotechnology, and quantum physics. I was involved in the pi- oneering works of magnetic resonance imaging development. My team discovered that NMR relaxation times (T1 and T2) of cellular water undergo a progressive change when the tissue transforms from the normal to pre-neoplastic and then to tumor state. This discovery enabled physicians to use NMR to detect the early stage of cancer development. More recently, my research was devoted to studies of signaling mechanisms in cell cycle and gene transfer technology. What led you to apply for the BPS Ambassador Program? By serving in the BPS Ambassador program, I hope to share my research experience with younger people, and to pro- mote international exchange more actively in the studies of biophysics. I have some working experience with international scientific organizations. I worked in the United States for more than 20 years and had joined many scholastic societies there, including BPS. I was a Council Member of the Asian Biophysical Association and served as the Hong Kong Rep- resentative in the International Union for Pure and Applied Biophysics for more than 10 years. What are your Ambassador Program goals? I would like to promote more active collaboration between the physics and life science communities in my region. Also, Donald C. Chang I was trained in physics (B.A. from the Na- tional Taiwan University in 1965 and PhD from Rice University in Houston in 1970).

In 2019, the Council envisioned a new program within the Biophysical Society (BPS) focused exclusively on our inter- national members, the Ambassador Program. It was creat- ed both to enhance BPS inclusion of the global biophysics community and to provide new pathways into biophysics in Ambassadors’ home countries. Beginning in 2020, a cohort of four BPS Ambassadors per year has been selected to repre- sent biophysics in their countries, resulting in 3 cohorts and 12 Ambassadors to date. These Ambassadors, each repre- senting a different country, work in conjunction with BPS committees and staff to offer increased content, program- ming, and a voice for the international biophysics community. In January 2022, the last of the inaugural program cohorts will begin their term. Representing Australia, China, Kenya, and the Netherlands, they will join their fellow Ambassadors from Argentina, Canada, India, Malaysia, Norway, Portugal, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. We look forward to work- ing with this new cohort of Ambassadors and the range and breadth of experience and knowledge these 12 individuals bring to BPS and biophysics. Renae Ryan Australia What do you do professionally? on amino acid and neurotransmitter transporters. Over my career, I have always had a love of biophysics and using bio- physical techniques to understand the molecular mechanism of transport proteins, which I think are the coolest proteins! I am currently the Secretary-General of the Asian Biophysics Association (ABA), which brings together seven Biophysical Societies in Asia (Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan) to promote biophysics and collaboration in the Asia-Pacific region. We co-host a major meeting with one of the member societies every three years, and ABA is an Adhering Body of the International Union for Pure and Applied Biophysics. What led you to apply for the BPS Ambassador Program? I am passionate about improving diversity and inclusion in biophysics and am committed to growing biophysics in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. There is so much great biophysics research in our region to be showcased. The BPS Ambassador Program seems a perfect way to achieve these goals. Renae Ryan I am a Professor at the University of Sydney, Australia. My group studies the structure and function of membrane proteins with a focus

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Public Affairs

I am a strong believer that a) the spirit of science is built on curiosity, innovation, and freedom of thought, and b) social responsibility should be an important part of science. Tell us something fun about yourself I enjoy working on very diverse topics, including biomedical physics, foundation of quantum physics, philosophy, and history. I have published four books, each of which are on very different topics, ranging from the origin of matter to the battle of morals. In my spare time, I enjoy sports. I was an enthusiastic player of tennis and badminton. Philip Amuyunzu Mang’are Kenya What do you do professionally? a Bachelor of Education (Science), Master of Science (Phys- ics), and PhD (Physics) from Egerton University, Kenya. My research has been on behavioral biophysics, establishing the phonotactic responses of the mated female Anopheles gambi- ae , which are malaria vectors. Out of this research, a mosqui- to-repellent device has been designed and constructed for use as an additional tool in malaria vector control. Besides being a Lecturer of Physics, I have taught physics and mathe- matics for more than 15 years in high school and am a Trainer of Teachers of Science under the Strengthening Mathematics and Science in Secondary Education (SMASSE) program in Vihiga County. In terms of community social responsibility, I have mounted anti-jigger campaigns since 2016. Due to these activities, I have been nominated for a Peace Award in 2021. I also engage in mentorship activities for promotion of education, good discipline, and science. My interest in biology since high school never diminished in my academic pursuits. Though I ventured into pursuing physical studies, I looked for a possi- bility of integrating physics and biology and the answer was in biophysics and bioacoustics. My graduate studies were basically biophysics—using physics concepts to explain bio- logical phenomena. What led you to apply for the BPS Ambassador Program? I found BPS, which has been of great help to my academic and professional work. The Society has provided me with an opportunity to showcase my research work through confer- ences and provision of grants. I have served as the President of the Biophysical Society Kenya Chapter, encouraging a number of students and scholars to pursue biophysical-relat- ed research. The activities of our chapter through network- ing events, Biophysics Week, and normal engagement with Philip Amuyunzu Mang’are I am a Lecturer of Physics at Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology in Kenya and an author of high school books. I received

students, scholars, and industrialists have yielded a positive impact. So far, a biophysics curriculum is being developed for adoption by member institutions. What are your Ambassador Program goals? As a BPS Ambassador, I look forward to establishing five BPS chapters per year at universities in Kenya, conducting an annual international biophysical conference, and ensuring all chapters participate in BPS activities. I will use this position to promote membership of the Society by all chapters. I will expand these activities to all East African countries, including Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan, Egypt, and Burundi. So far, the Uganda Chapter has been created. I will embrace teamwork and collegiality among chapter membership through online meetings with them, actual visitation to their institutions, and advocating for biophysics with the govern- ment. Tell us something fun about yourself I love traveling, making friends, and reading. Katarzyna “Kasia” Tych Netherlands What do you do professionally? research group in experimental single-molecule biophysics. We work on a broad range of projects primarily seeking to expand the tools available to study the relationships between structure, function, and dynamics of individual biological molecules. What led you to apply for the BPS Ambassador Program? I chose to apply to become a BPS Ambassador because I think that it will provide me with an excellent platform for raising awareness of how we can make biophysics more diverse and inclusive. The BPS network will connect me to like-minded individuals who share this goal and will enable me to share my ideas and to bring initiatives that have been successful in I am passionate about making science more accessible and welcoming to women and under-represented minorities. Throughout my career to date, I have organized and taken part in a number of initiatives with this in mind and becoming a BPS Ambassador is a great opportunity to continue to work towards this goal. Tell us something fun about yourself If I’m not in the lab or the office, I can usually be found hang- ing around on a bouldering wall (or a real rock if I’m lucky). other parts of the world to the Netherlands. What are your Ambassador Program goals? Katarzyna “Kasia” Tych I am a Rosalind Franklin Fellow and tenure track assistant professor at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, leading a

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A-TEEM for Biophysical Newsletter.indd 1

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Member Corner

Members in the News

Four Society members received Cottrell Scholar Collaborative Awards: Penny Beuning , Northeastern University and Society member since 2007, for Cottrell Scholars Collaborative as Bridge for Na- tional DEI Efforts. Gina MacDonald , James Madison University and Society member since 1990, and Jennifer Ross , Syracuse University and Society member since 2002, for Art and the Creative STEM Classroom. Kathryn Mouzakis , Loyola Marymount University and Society member since 2021, for A Cottrell Scholars Workshop on Authentic Grading in STEM and Holistic Evaluation of Students’ Performance.

Frances Separovic , University of Melbourne and Society member since 1985, was elected to the position of Foreign Secretary of the Australian Academy of Science.

Taekjip Ha , Johns Hopkins University and So- ciety member since 1998, is recognized as a Cottrell Scholar supporting a funded postdoc.

Frances Separovic

Taekjip Ha

Student Spotlight

Dheeraj Prakaash University of Leeds Leeds Institute of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine What skill have you learned in your studies that you find useful in other aspects of your life?

I believe that my skill set in problem solving and managing projects independently has undergone a major upgrade. On the other hand, the process of visualizing and representing biomolecular structures has helped tweak my creative side and bring out the artist in me. More importantly, during my studies, I have learned how to showcase my work to an international audience and build my professional network. For this, I would like to thank the Biophysical Society for providing one of the best platforms.

Dheeraj Prakaash

The Biophysical Society is grateful to its Industry Partners.

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For Industry Partner Membership information, contact alevine@biophysics.org.

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At a cocktail party of non-scientists, how would you explain what you do? I ruin perfectly good microscopes for a living. My group utilizes the fact that in modern microscopy, there is an extra layer between the human observer and the sample being observed—the computer. This relatively new fact (relative to the history of microscopy) allows for designing novel optical systems that distort images cleverly to encode information in them. This results in images that to the naked eye would seem distorted. The information is then decoded, yielding im- aging systems with super-capabilities compared to conven- tional microscopes. The capabilities we focus on are mainly volumetric and multicolor fluorescence microscopy. What are you currently working on that excites you? For the last several years, my group has been using deep learning to solve various microscopy challenges. These in- clude applications in image analysis, such as super-resolution localization microscopy at high density in two dimensions and three dimensions, single-particle diffusion characteri- zation, multicolor imaging, and more; but perhaps the most exciting is neural-net–based optical system design—namely, using algorithms to design the optical system itself such that the measurements are maximally informative. In principle, automated system design frees us from the boundaries of our own human imagination and from falling into local design minima that are sometimes the result of tradition. Of course, algorithmic design has its own limitations, and a human in the loop is still necessary for sanity checks and for some direction of the design process, although we try to let the algorithms “run loose” as much as possible. We are currently pursuing various ways to algorithmically design different applica- tion-specific optical systems. 0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1 Control +M β CD Normalised intensity Wavelength (n ) C E 0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1 Lo Ld Normalised intensity Wavelength (nm) Model membrane Plasma membrane

1 Editor’s Pick Biophysical Reports D

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NR4A NR12A “Stimulated emission depletion super-resolution microsco- py can induce photobleaching (i.e., irreversible fluorophore destruction), limiti g long-term sample observation. Ex- changeable dyes circumvent this problem by only temporarily binding to their target. Here, we used NR4A, an exchangeable dye that also reports on membrane packing, to image model and live-cell plasma membranes. We demonstrate that NR4A enables long-term quantification of membrane biophysical properties, even at the highest stimulated emission depletion resolution, without photobleaching-induced signal loss. NR4A can also be used to simultaneously measure membrane pack- ing and dynamics. By combining the benefits of super-reso- lution microscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, and long-term imaging, exchangeable dyes open new possibilities to image dynamic processes with high temporal and spatial resolu- tion, which we demonstrate by imaging lipid exchange during membrane fusion.” -1 0 Pablo Carravilla , Anindita Dasgupta , Gaukhar Zhurgenbayeva , Dmytro I. Danylchuk , Andrey S. Klymchenko , Erdinc Sezgin , Christian Eggeling GP Laurdan Control +M β CD -0.5 -0.4 -0.3 -0.2 -0.1 0 GP 0.2 -0.9 0.5 -0.9 0.5 -0.9 +M β CD Control Ld Lo G F Experiment 1 Experiment 2 Experiment 3 Long-term STED imaging of membrane packing and dynamics by exchangeable polarity-sensitive dyes -0.5

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Version of Record Published September 13, 2021 DOI:https:/doi.org/10.1016/j.bpr.2021.100023

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Publications

Biophysical Journal Welcomes New Editor-in-Chief and Editorial BoardMembers for 2022 The Biophysical Journal is pleased to welcome Vasanthi Jayaraman as the next Editor-in-Chief of the journal as of January 1, 2022. Jayaraman, of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the McGovern Medical School of the Univer- sity of Texas Health Science Center (USA), is a long-time contributor to the journal, most recently as the Associate Editor for the Channels and Transporters section. Sudha Chakrapani of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at Case Western Reserve University (USA) has been appointed as the new Associate Editor for that section. With the term of the Associate Editor for Genome Biophysics expiring at the end of 2021, that section has become part of a combined section called Genome Biophysics and Nucleic Acids under Associate Editor Jason Kahn . The journal is fortunate that Tamar Schlick , having completed her term as Associate Editor, has agreed to continue as an Editorial Board Member for the combined section. In addition, Biophysical Journal is excited to welcome the following new members to the Editorial Board: Manu Ben-Johny , Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, USA Jing Chen , Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Tech, USA Frank Gabel , Institute of Structural Biology, France Maria Garcia-Parajo , ICFO, Spain Eleonora Grandi , Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of California, Davis, USA Michael Greenberg , Department of Biochemistry and Molecular

Jeetain Mittal , Department of Chemistry, Lehigh University, USA H. Raghuraman , Crystallography and Molecular Biology Division, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, India Karissa Sanbonmatsu , Theoretical Biology and Biophysics Group, Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA Jeffrey Saucerman , Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia, USA Markus Sauer , The Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Germany Jeanne Stachowiak , Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, USA Robert Vandenberg , Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Australia Valeria Vasquez , Department of Physiology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, USA Kristen Verhey , Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan Medical School, USA Yu-Li Wang , Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, USA Michael Woodside , Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Canada Jianhua Xing , Department of Computational and Systems Biology, University of Pittsburgh, USA

Biophysics, Washington University in St. Louis, USA Joe Howard , Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale School of Medicine, USA Kerwyn Casey Huang , Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University, USA Judy Kim , Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego, USA Tuomas Knowles , Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, UK Misha Kozlov , Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Tel Aviv University, Israel Alain Laederach , Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, USA Filip Lankas , Department of Informatics and Chemistry, University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, Czechia Diane Lidke , Department of Pathology, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, USA

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Career Development

How to Deal with Perfectionism The actor Denzel Washington said in an award acceptance speech, “Without commitment, you will never start. But more importantly: without consistency, you will never finish.” I would add “pas- sion” to “commitment” and “persever- ance” to “consistency,” but this note, in the broader sense, is about what it takes to carry out and present or publish sci- entific research: it takes a certain kind of mind with curiosity, imagination, and attention to detail as well as to the bigger picture. However, as a “nuts-and-bolts” motto, it takes the aspiration and with it the perspiration to produce a perfect piece of research work. Perfectionism—when everything seems to go right, often in situations with no room for error—is central to many sports disciplines, but is also in full display in the arts. So it is with presenting scientific results, apart from an almost artistic flair, there is a lot of process-associated skill: are the data of the highest possible quality, did we think of all the controls and caveats, did we have a full grasp of the literature, and is the presentation as clear, comprehensible, and logical as possible? The list is long and exacting. Scientific researchers feel their ability to produce the highest-quality work possible typically goes hand in hand with the success of a laboratory to publish in the most prestigious and high-impact-factor journals and with invitations to give plenary talks at conferences. Objectively, there is no room for sloppiness in the execution of research or its presentation. “Good enough” is simply not good enough! Given that the nature of reality is now universally accepted as statistical, nothing is absolutely 100% certain and those who have cherry-picked their data (fromMendel to Millikan) had their reputation in history dented at least a little. Beyond this, the desire for perfectionism in many situations runs into the reality of limited resources (with time being the most pre- cious—i.e. deadlines) and into the human nature to make at least some mistakes. A wrong note played by a concert pianist or the slip of a champion skater in an ice dancing routine can be catastrophic. For science, one can argue that impactful prog- ress in a field of research is more and more the result of team- work, competition, or collaboration between several laborato- ries, which in the aggregate produces “perfection,” especially in

fields that translate knowledge into technology, engineering, or manufacturing. After all, airplanes very rarely fall out of the sky. Thus, you might be surprised that this author, a senior aca- demic, is about to argue against the need for an extraordinarily strong aspiration to be the perfect scientist or to produce the perfect piece of research work. In fact, a personal psychology of perfectionism creates many problems, in particular for scien- tists: from committing outright fraud or some level of falsifica- tion of data, to imposter syndrome (subject of a previous Molly Cule piece), obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression (which can cause an inability to get passionate about or started with a project), or not being able to finish a piece of research due to being sidetracked into doing unnecessary experiments and controls. I am not suggesting that those who are unable to be careful by paying attention to details or who lack reasonable worries about making mistakes should embark on a career in scientific research. However, this investigator cherishes the unpredictable, creative, and imaginative aspects of the research experience. No experiment works well the first or second time, and optimization is required, but to deliver “perfect” and “beyond-doubt reproducible” data is an expectation we have of computers and robots, not of humans. The second aspect of perfectionism is that even when you might be at peace with accepting the “reasonably good enough,” your advisor might not be. This can cause a lot of friction and unhappiness, but this investigator was given the following piece of advice early on: “Our mentor is never happy anyway. Make sure that you are happy with what you do and how you do it.” Scientific research attracts unusual personalities—from those who micromanage the most important projects and papers (i.e., nothing is done perfectly unless they do it themselves) to those for whom only extreme effort can result in work that is perfect enough. Countering such behavior takes courage: a hard appeal to the rational and the fortunes of reality, mentioned above. Ultimately, every scientist needs their own internal guide about what quality standards to set for their work. Increasingly, com- puters and robots are becoming our colleagues in carrying out research, so let’s leave much of the perfectionism to them. — Molly Cule

Numbers By the

BPS held 12 Networking Events in 2021. These events were organized by members in 5 different countries.

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Career Development

The First BPS Virtual Graduate Fair The first Biophysical Society (BPS) Virtual Graduate Fair was a great event for recruiting organiza- tions to share information about their graduate programs with students. It was held in November 2021, with open houses held on November 11 and 12, to help students decide to which graduate programs to apply prior to deadlines. Students met with representatives during the open houses to learn about their programs and were able to browse the pages for information outside of the open house times. Over 250 students were registered from more than 30 countries! BPS would like to thank all participating organizations: • Arizona State University, • Brandeis University,

• University of California, Irvine, • University of California, San Francisco, • University of Iowa, • University of Maryland, • University of Michigan, • University of New South Wales, Australia, • University of Notre Dame, • University of Pittsburgh, • University of Toronto, Canada, • Vanderbilt University, • Washington University in St. Louis, • Wayne State University, • Weill Cornell Medical College, and • Yale University. We are already looking forward to next year’s fair!

• Carnegie Mellon University, • City University of New York,

• Clemson University, • Emory University, • Johns Hopkins University, • National Institutes of Health Scholars Program,

• Northeastern University, • The Ohio State University, • Oregon State University, • Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, • Rice University,

• Stanford University, • Texas Tech University,

• University of California, Berkeley, • University of California, Davis,

Grants & Opportunities National Science Foundation: Designing Synthetic Cells Beyond the Bounds of Evolution (Designer Cells) Because of recent technological advances in synthetic bi- ology and bioengineering, researchers are now able to tai- lor cells and cell-like systems for various basic and applied research purposes. The goal of this grant is to support research that (1) develops cell-like systems to identify the minimal requirements for the processes of life, (2) designs synthetically modified cells to address fundamental questions in the evolution of life or to explore biological diversity beyond that which currently exists in nature, and (3) leverages basic research in cell design to build novel synthetic cell-like systems and cells for innovative biotechnology applications. Deadline: February 1, 2022 Website: https:/www.nsf.gov/pubs/2021/nsf21531/ nsf21531.htm

National Institutes of Health: Novel Synthetic Nucleic Acid Technology Development Applications are sought to develop novel technologies that will enable substantive improvement in synthetic nucleic acids. The goal is to improve the quality, capabili- ties, and efficiency of nucleic acid synthesis and synthetic constructs at reasonable and decreased costs. R01 clinical trial not allowed. Who can apply: No self-nominations are allowed. Deadline: February 4, 2022 Website: https:/grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/ RFA-HG-20-014.html

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