Biophysical Society Bulletin | November 2024

Communities

Charlotte Smith Early Careers Committee

Charlotte Smith

Is this your first volunteer position for BPS? If not, what other positions have you held? Yes, this is my first volunteer position for BPS. I was previously a Postdoctoral Representative at The University of Manches ter and the Secretary of the Postdoctoral Scholars Association at the University of California, Davis, so volunteering on the Early Careers Committee at BPS felt like a great opportuni ty to continue to advocate for early career researchers and promote opportunities for career development, but on an international level. Why do you volunteer? I volunteer for BPS because I am passionate about promoting an inclusive, diverse international scientific community that supports the development of early career scientists. The BPS Early Careers Committee does amazing work promoting career development activities, not just at the Annual Meeting but year-round through their virtual programming. Volunteer ing has not only allowed me to become involved in organizing these events, but it has also allowed me to interact with out standing scientists from different research backgrounds and to expand my scientific network.

What has been a highlight from your volunteer experience? Last year, the Early Careers Committee became involved in judging the travel award applications for the BPS Annual Meet ing. I was fortunate to take part in judging the undergraduate applications and was really impressed by the novel and exciting research being performed by undergraduate students and their enthusiasm for attending the BPS meeting to present their work for the first time. Do you have advice for others who might be thinking about volunteering? Get involved! Volunteering for BPS is a great way to meet new people, develop key professional skills, and give back to the scientific community. When not volunteering for BPS, what do you work on? My research is focused on investigating mechanisms of cardiac arrhythmias from the subcellular to whole organ level. Outside of the lab, I love travelling and experiencing the incredible nat ural landscapes and wildlife that California has to offer. When I get a chance to go home and visit family in the UK, you’ll find me watching Man City football or spending time with my niece and nephews, Daisy, Tobias, and Sebastian.

BPS2025 IUPAB Lecturer

The IUPAB-sponsored invited speaker at BPS2025 will be Aravind Penmatsa , Associate Professor at the Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science. He will be speaking about “Mechanisms of GABA reuptake and inhibition among GABA transporters” at the Biophysical Society Annual Meeting in 2025. Penmatsa’s early training

was in pharmaceutical sciences at Osmania University, Hyderabad, India. He subsequently completed a PhD at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, in structural biology and biophysics of ion-binding proteins. His postdoctoral research was as an American Heart Association Fellow at the Gouaux lab in the Vollum Institute, Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon, where he studied the mechanisms and pharmacology of the neu rotransmitter uptake system involved in dopamine transport in neurons. He returned to India and set up his lab at the Molec ular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science in 2015, where his group studies the transport mechanisms of neurotransmit ters like noradrenaline and GABA and their transport inhibition by pain and antiepileptic medications. His group also studies antiporters involved in multi-drug efflux and develops novel strategies for using single-domain antibodies to determine the structures of integral membrane transporters to study their mechanisms and functional roles. Penmatsa is a senior fellow of the DBT-Wellcome Trust India Alliance; a European Molecular Biology Organization Global Investigator; a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India; a Vigyan Yuva-Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar awardee; and a member of the Biophysical Society. Aravind Penmatsa

November 2024

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