Biophysical Society Bulletin | June 2019

Communities

Intrinsically Disordered Proteins The IDP Annual Symposium At the 2019 Annual Meeting of BPS in Baltimore the Intrinsi- cally Disordered Proteins (IDP) Subgroup hosted an interest- ing and successful symposium. Opening speaker Gary Pielak discussed the intrinsically disordered cytoplasmic-abundant heat soluble class of proteins that allow tardigrades (“wa- ter bears”) to survive extreme dehydration conditions. Next, Jeetain Mittal presented atomistic and coarse-grained mod- eling approaches to accurately capture structural details and sequence dependence of liquid-liquid phase separation of disordered proteins. Joan-Emma Shea reported on advances in application of theory to self-assembly of the tau protein and its role in fibril formation and coacervation. After the break, James Shorter presented recent work on how nuclear import factors alter phase separation and aggregation behavior of RNA-binding proteins that are connected to ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and frontotempo- ral dementia. Jean Baum delivered a talk on the role of beta- Nominating Committee The BPS Bulletin is running a series highlighting the Society’s committees to help members learn more about the work that committee members do on behalf of BPS. With the BPS elections currently underway, it seems appropriate to highlight the Nominating Committee. The Nominating Committee is charged with developing a list of nominees for open officer and Council positions. The committee endeavors to provide the membership with a slate of candidates who reflect the geographic, scientific, and demographic diversity of the society. The Nominating Committee is elected annually by Council at its meeting on the last day of the Society’s Annual Meeting. The committee is elected for a period of one year, and the Chair is chosen from among four newly elected members. The Nominating Committee is made up of at least five vol- unteer members. The members include the Past-Commit- tee Chair, who serves as a non-voting consulting member, two members of Council, and two non-members of Council. The Immediate Past President during the year following the election of the Nominating Committee is also a voting member of the committee.

synuclein in controlling the formation of fibrils containing alpha-synuclein. The symposium ended with talks by Mingjie Zhang , who discussed how neuronal synapses are formed and dynamically regulated by assemblies containing postsynaptic density scaffold proteins, and Wolfgang Peti , who presented on the role of IDPs in substrate recognition for protein phos- phatases. A feature of the symposium is the announcement of and pre- sentations by the two winners of the IDP Subgroup Postdoc- toral Award, supported by the generosity of Keith Dunker . This year’s winners were Dan Bracha ( Cliff Brangwynne laboratory) who presented on the development of a photo-activatable biomimetic system for the spatial and temporal regulation of intracellular phase transitions, and Yi-Hsuan Lin ( Hue Sun Chan laboratory) who presented a polymer theory to describe the phase separation behavior of charged intrinsically disordered proteins. If you enjoyed the annual symposium and are not already a member of the IDP subgroup, we hope you will consider joining. — Hue Sun Chan and Nicolas Fawzi , Program Co-Chairs, IDP Subgroup Over the course of their term, members of the committee connect via phone and email to propose and discuss poten- tial nominees. Ensuring a diverse slate is a central goal of the committee. As committee members identify potential nominees, they contact those individuals to confirm the nominee’s willingness to stand for election. The committee prepares a list of at least eight nominees, including volunteer and petition candidates, for Council; two for President-Elect; and two for Treasurer and Secretary when necessary. The Committee Chair presents the list to Council for final approval when Council meets prior to the Annual Meeting. Once approved, the ballot is developed and sent to all mem- bers of the Society by June 15. The ballots, both electronic and paper are available, must be returned to the Society office before August 1. The thoughtful, hard work of the Nominating Committee and the votes of the members are vital to ensuring strong, dedicated leadership who are charged with pursing the mission of the Biophysical Society. Jane Clarke was the Chair of the Nominating Committee for 2018–2019 and Zev Bryant is the Chair for 2019–2020.

June 2019

13

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