Biophysical Society Bulletin | March 2019

Publications

Special Issue: Membrane Protein Signaling Biophysical Journal Call for Papers

Know the Editor Anatoly B. Kolomeisky Rice University Editor, Genomic Biophysics

Editors: Andrew Plested and Vasanthi Jayaraman

Anatoly B. Kolomeisky

Biophysical Journal will publish a special issue of the Journal with a focus on membrane protein signaling. The Journal welcomes submissions that report on biophysics of membrane protein signaling, with emphasis on the structure and dynamics of

What are you currently working on that excites you? I am trying to understand the molecular mechanisms of cancer. In contrast to the popular biochemical and genetic methods, we employ mathematical models to describe the dynamics of tumor formation. Our idea is that the dynamics of the appearance of cancer and its progression can tell us a lot about the underlying mechanisms. We are developing a theoretical framework which would predict the probability and, most importantly, the average time before specific can- cers will appear. What excites me is that this will be very use- ful for the future of personalized medicine. I dream that in the future a patient will go to a doctor who will apply our frame- work to evaluate the risks of different cancers for this person. This will be a tremendous help in improving our health. What has been your most exciting discovery as a biophysicist? Recently, my collaborators and I investigated the question of what criteria are utilized by biological cells to optimize their functions. It is widely believed that living systems are trying to make as few mistakes as possible. It is based on observa- tions that the amount of errors is very small in living systems. To our big surprise, after we applied our theoretical method for several biological systems, we found that speed is more important than the accuracy as long as the number of errors is tolerable. This changed my views of the fundamental principles that govern biological processes.

channels, transporters and receptors. Physiological signaling, model systems and sensory biology are of particular interest. The journal aims to publish the highest quality work and articles should have sufficient importance to be of general interest to biophysicists, regardless of their research specialty.

Please contact the editors with queries about scope and suitability.

Deadline for submission: July 1, 2019

For more information, go to www.biophysj.org

March 2019

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