Biophysical Society Bulletin | November 2023

BPS Conference

Membrane Fusion and Budding Estes Park, Colorado, USA, September 24–27, 2023

Chaired by Arun Anantharam (University of Toledo, USA), Michelle Knowles (University of Denver, USA), and Ling-Gang Wu (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, NIH, USA), the conference was uniquely designed to bring two seemingly separate fields together: membrane fusion and membrane budding. The conference provided a laser focus on fusion and budding across diverse systems, including exo- and endocytosis in endocrine cells, synaptic transmission, viral fusion and budding, intracellular trafficking, exosome secretion, mitochondria fusion and fission, vesicle-vesicle compound fusion and fission, and cell-cell fusion and division, as well as fusion and budding in vitro and in computation. The conference kicked off with a really memorable evening. After the opening remark by Wu, who explained the motiva tion for organizing a meeting on these topics, John Heuser , a pioneer who initiated the exo- and endocytosis study with electron microscopy, gave the opening talk. He took us with his “time machine” back to his lab with Tom Reese in the 1970s and 1980s—detailing how they made the seminal discovery of vesicle endocytosis and the mode of fusion, and how they debated with the Ceccarelli group regarding the kiss-and-run fusion mode. Next, James Rothman , a Nobel laureate in 2013, gave a detailed update on the nanoscale structure of the fusion machinery. Afterwards, colleagues gathered to socialize over drinks. After this impressive evening, the conference held three full days of presentations and poster sections with an impressive list of speakers at the forefront of the field discussing their exciting and cutting-edge discoveries that employ an array of state-of-the-art techniques, including various super-res olution nanoscopic methods, cryo-electron microscopy and tomography, electrophysiology, genetics, molecular biology, cell biology, biochemistry methods, and clinically relevant approaches. A total of 115 scientists from North America,

Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Middle East attended the con ference; 42 principal investigators at different career stages and 8 postdocs/students gave talks of 15 to 25 minutes; 59 posters were presented; and question and answer sessions were vigorous yet warm, and often continued informally after the session ended. The conference offered time for informal discussion, potential collaboration, and socializing around the stunning beauty of Estes Park with herds of resident elk randomly walking by and hiking trails of the Rocky Mountain National Park within a 10-minute drive. All attendees enthusiastically expressed their hope to attend this conference every two years. The organizers would like to thank the sponsors of the conference for their generous support: National Institute of Neurologi cal Disorders and Stroke, BPS, Abberior, Nikon, and Evident. They express huge gratitude to BPS Director of Meetings & Exhibits, Dorothy Chaconas , who helped to secure the confer ence location and took care of all logistics together with her colleagues Erica Bellavia and Umi Zhou . Photos were taken by Wu.

November 2023

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