Biophysical Society Bulletin | May 2021

Biophysicist in Profile

His biggest challenge has been maintaining focus. “By that, I mean that I have a penchant for wanting to explore new and exciting areas of research, and as someone in the computa- tional space, the barriers to doing so are lower than those for an experimentalist. As such, I have found myself exploring working on mini-projects that, though interesting, do not align with the two areas my group focuses on,” he shares. “Of course, this penchant for exploration is not inherently a bad thing, but given the pressures on early-career researchers like myself, there is not a lot of incentive to freely explore project-space. I am not sure I have overcome this challenge completely, but what I have found helpful is actively talking about my research interests and plans with senior mentors both within and outside of the University of Michigan.” When he is not working, Frank is spending time with his fam- ily. He also enjoys playing video games, though it is now hard to find the time to do so. He also has an interest in history, saying that he would want a career as a historian if he were not a biophysicist.

Frank has organized a Biophysical Society-sponsored virtual networking event taking place on May 21 called “Biophysics in the Age of Machine Learning,” bringing together a slate of speakers to discuss opportunities and challenges in leverag- ing machine learning to enhance the molecular modeling of biophysical systems. He shares, “Being able to organize bio- physics symposia and virtual networking events as a member of the Biophysical Society has been helpful, especially as it relates to making new connections and also getting a better sense of who’s in my field and what are they doing.”

Profiles in Biophysics No two biophysicists have the same story. Read about the many paths that led each of them to become a biophysicist. www.biophysics.org/profiles-in-biophysics

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BPS Innovation Award Renamed in Honor of Carolyn Cohen This motor is switched “on” and “off” by calcium ions which bind to regulatory proteins such as tropomyosin/troponin and—in certain cases—to myosin itself. Atomic structures of these switches showed how the motor activity is controlled. She also worked on the protein folding problem, with a focus on the alpha-helical coiled-coil mo- tif that occurs in a diverse range of proteins, including those in muscle (myosin rod, tropomyosin, paramyosin), membranes, and transcription factors (leucine zipper). The fact that this motif can be recognized easily and directly from the amino acid sequence of a protein gives it special significance. By making as many connections as possible among apparently diverse protein classes, her research yielded insights into the physical principles underlying protein folding.

Carolyn Cohen

Cohen was a member of the Biophysical Society from 1979 until she passed away in 2017. She received BPS’s 2000 Founders Award for outstanding achievement in Biophysics and was a Member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Carolyn Cohen Award for Biophysical Innovation will be presented next at the BPS 2022 Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California, on February 21.

Numbers By the

BPS has 178 volunteer members represented on 14 committees.

May 2021

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