Biophysical Society Bulletin | November 2018

Thematic Meeting

Member Corner

Members in the News

Santa Cruz is arguably the birthplace of genome sequencing. Subsequently, genomics and bioinformatics have become crucial tools throughout the biological sciences. While ex- perimental and computational biophysics have also provided invaluable insight into the structure and function of genomes and their products, until now there has been little connection between these two complementary research communities. Consequently, while we have learned much about the se- quences of genomes of many organisms, we still do not have a full mechanistic understanding of how this information is regulated and controlled. The thematic meeting featured a program of 26 invited and 11 contributed talks, 22 posters, an Illumina workshop, and a full session dedicated to addressing the needs of measure- ment science, standards, quantitative methods, and tools for genomics (Joint Initiative for Metrology in Biology). We explored the importance of integrating information obtained from informatics with our knowledge of the spatial and tem- poral arrangement and mechanical properties of genomes. The meeting was highly multidisciplinary, and engaged partic- ipants specializing in biology, analytical sciences and metrol- ogy, medicine, computer science, physics, pure and applied mathematics. Speakers provided an accessible overview of the most important concepts in their fields, and the meeting enjoyed a culture where the most basic questions from par- ticipants were welcomed and discussed at length during and after speaker presentations. The topics explored included the importance of DNA supercoiling in regulating both prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms, the role of motor proteins in driv- ing the global dynamics of chromatin, and the 3D structure of whole genomes observed with single cell-experiments. The vital role of computer simulation both in interpreting biophys- ical experimental data and in generating fundamental mecha- nistic insight was highlighted. The future requirements for improving sequencing technol- ogy, both in terms of laboratory hardware (e.g., Illumina NGS platforms, Nanopore technologies), software, and archiving were the subject of intensive discussions between the two communities. Biophysics provides new capabilities to intro- duce quantification and metrology into wet laboratory exper- iments in the biosciences, and the importance of quantifying and understanding unknowns within informatics and struc- tural-biology datasets was a theme that emerged strongly from our meeting. Genome Biophysics: Integrating Genomics and Biophysics to Understand Structural and Functional Aspects of Genomes Santa Cruz, California | August 19-24, 2018

Grace Stokes , Santa Clara University, and Society member since 2017, was award- ed a 2018 Cottrell Scholar Award from the Research Corporation for Scientific Advancement.

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Grace Stokes

Clifford Brangwynne , Princeton University, and Society member since 2003, was a winner of a 2018 MacArthur “Genius” Grant for “Using the principles of soft matter physics and cell biology to illuminate novel mechanisms of cellular compartmentalization that drive biological development.

Important Dates BPS Thematic Meetings 63 rd BPS Annual Meeting March 2–6, 2019, Baltimore, Maryland Abstract Submission Deadline: October 1, 2018

Quantitative Aspects of Membrane Fusion and Fission May 6–10, 2019, Padova, Italy Abstract Submission Deadline: January 14, 2019 Early Registration Deadline: February 1, 2019 Revisiting the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology at the Single-Molecule Level July 15–18, 2019, Lima, Peru Abstract Submission Deadline: March 8, 2019 Early Registration Deadline: April 5, 2019

Attendees from across the globe met in Santa Cruz, California, to discuss and share their research.

Overall, the conference revealed the far-reaching implica- tions of gaining a holistic view of the physical, structural and informatics aspects of genomes; both to our fundamental scientific understanding of biology, but also for the poten- tial benefits to human and animal health. It was clear from our vibrant group discussions that this brings a need for a deep appreciation of the current limitations in our measure- ment systems and a quantitative understanding of error and uncertainty, which is a major concern due to the inherently stochastic behavior of biological systems across many length and time scales. Speakers from diverse backgrounds showed how standards are needed in measuring fundamental bio- logical variations, how quantification of the microbiome can help maintain the health of cancer patients during treatment, how the spatial and temporal choreography of transcription in living cells affects gene regulation by controlling RNA folding and how measuring genomic outputs can help us understand life in extreme environments. Just as the sequencing revo- lution emerged from Santa Cruz, we hope that the scientific breadth of our meeting and the richness of the scientific dis- cussion has inspired stronger collaboration between biophys- icists and informaticians. The meeting was organized by Massa Shoura and Julia Salzman , Stanford University; Sarah Anne Harris , University of Leeds; and Stephen Levene , University of Texas at Dallas.

Multiscale Modeling of Chromatin: Bridging Experiment with Theory March 31–April 5, 2019, Les Houches, France Abstract Submission & Registration Deadline: December 1, 2018

Student Spotlight Debadrita Modak

What do you think? BPS is conducting a publications survey and the email should arrive in your inbox during November. The Publications Committee encourages you to complete the survey when it arrives. This is the first comprehensive publications survey in more than five years and your input is important to setting the direction of the Society’s publications program. We realize that you are busy and surveys take time, but please use this opportunity to communicate your views to the Society leadership.

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry The Ohio State University As you move forward in science, what type of research do you see yourself doing? Why? As I move forward in science, I would like to apply crystallography and other biophysical tools I have learnt during my PhD, as well as learn new techniques such as electron cryo-microscopy, to explore more about the family of cadherin proteins. Cadherins are involved in cancer and various neurological disorders and study- ing them would open up paths of treatment for these diseases.

Debadrita Modak

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