Biophysical Society Bulletin | March 2026

Communities Biophysical Society Thematic Meeting

Mechanobiology of Infection

Ascona, Switzerland | June 7–11, 2026

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE Effie Bastounis , University of Tübingen, Germany

Over the past decade, groundbreaking advances in microbiology, biophysics, and biomedical engineering have begun to uncover the essential role of mechanical forces in infection biology. From how bacteria sense and respond to surface contact, to how host tissue stiffness influences colonization and immune defense, this emerging field connects the physical environment to the physiology of both pathogens and host cells. Despite rapid progress, there has been no dedicated forum to bring together the diverse community working at this interface—until now. This meeting will be the first international conference focused on the mechanobiology of host–pathogen interactions, with the goal of uniting researchers across disciplines to define the future of this field. The program will include invited talks, contributed presentations, poster sessions, and networking events, with a strong emphasis on early-career participation and cross-disciplinary exchange. Scientific sessions will explore bacterial force sensing, biofilm mechanics, motility, mechanical aspects of immune defense, theoret ical modeling, and host–microbe interactions in engineered systems and organoids. The conference will also showcase state-of-the-art tools for probing mechanical phenomena, including advanced micros copy, microfluidics, and computational modeling.

Daria Bonazzi , Institut Pasteur, France Alexandre Persat , EPFL, Switzerland SPEAKERS

Morgan Delarue , Laboratory for Analysis and Architecture of Systems (LAAS), France Yves Dufrene , Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium Fan Jin , University of Shenzhen, China Yasaman Karami , Center Inria University De Lorraine, Belgium Rebecca Lamason , MIT, USA Tâm Mignot , CNRS Aix-Marseille Université, France Ashley Nord , Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), France Teuta Pilizota , University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Enrique Rojas , New York University, USA Khalid Salaita , Emory University, USA Joe Sanfilippo , University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA Joshua Shaevitz , Princeton University, USA Carolina Tropini , University of British Columbia, Canada Navish Wadhwa , Arizona State University, USA Gerard Wong , University of California, Los Angeles, USA Yilin Wu , Chinese University of Hong Kong, China Jing Yan , Yale University, USA Vasily Zaburdaev , University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany

Abstract Submission Deadline: March 31, 2026 Early Registration Deadline: April 16, 2026

For more information, visit www.biophysics.org

March 2026

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