Biophysical Society Bulletin | March 2022

Public Affairs

researchers working in diverse subjects with a special focus on biomechanics came together at the oldest preserved wooden building in Oslo. The former farmhouse Tøyen Hov- edgård dates back to 1679. It belongs to the Museum of Nat- ural History and is located in the center of the Oslo Botanical Garden. The workshop included a series of 21 short talks, and the meeting provided an opportunity for direct scientific ex- change and stimulated new collaborations and grant proposal ideas. The opening speech was given by the director of the University of Oslo Life Science Initiative, Carl Henrik Gørbitz . Gørbitz presented examples of biomechanics problems and applications and emphasized the importance of the subject in contemporary life science research. Below are examples of particularly interesting talks, which underline the wide range of subjects covered by the field of biomechanics:

such enhancement are not sufficiently explored. Sleep was shown to be associated with specific blood flow patterns that affect the flow of cerebrospinal fluid, which is thought to enhance brain waste clearance in sleep. Tapio Ala-Nissilä from Aalto University in Finland presented computational simulations depicting polymer translocation through nanopores. This is of importance for developing tech- nology for rapid and inexpensive sequencing of human DNA, for example by forcing DNA though a nanopore and reading its sequence during the translocation process. Joakim Stenhammar from Lund University in Sweden contrib- uted with new results on the behavior of microswimmers, such as bacteria. He showed through simulations and theory that bacteria can swim synchronously even in very dilute suspensions. His team suggested that collective motion was driven by mutual rotations of the bacteria. Jonas Ries from the Cell Biology and Biophysics Unit of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany showed amazing examples of the capabilities of super resolution microscopy, in particular single molecule localization microscopy. His group increased the throughput and imaging speed of this method to capture structure and dynamics of molecular machines in cells, and specifically visu- alized the locations of individual proteins within the machin- ery involved in clathrin-mediated endocytosis. Ries developed a model of how the mechanical force, which is required to pull on the membrane and form a vesicle, is produced by the cell. It has been a long-standing question how the clathrin coat is formed and the membranes are deformed during vesicle formation. It is encouraging that, despite all current difficulties, research- ers are coming together again in such an inspiring atmo- sphere to engage in discussions, share ideas, and form new collaborations. — Irep Gözen , BPS Ambassador, Norway

Director of UiO Life Sciences, Carl Henrik Gørbitz, giving the opening speech. Photo credit: Irep Gözen.

Nathalie Jurisch-Yaksi from the Norwegian University of Sci- ence and Technology presented her group’s findings on the impact of flow of the fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord, the cerebrospinal fluid, in the development of zebrafish, an animal model to study development and gene function of vertebrates. She emphasized that little was known about how the nervous system generates specific flow patterns and how cerebrospinal fluid flow controls neurogenesis and neural activity. Using a combination of live imaging and genet- ic tools, her team identified that motile cilia act jointly with other physiological factors to regulate cerebrospinal fluid flow dynamics in the developing zebrafish ventricles. Another scientist from University of Oslo, Laura Bojarskaite , also investigated cerebrospinal fluid flow patterns, this time in the context of sleep. She explained that the waste clear- ance from the brain is significantly more efficient during sleep than during wakefulness, yet the underlying mechanisms of

Participants in the workshop. Photo credit: Larissa Lily, Centre for Molecular Medicine Norway.

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