Biophysical Society Bulletin | September 2019

Biophysicists in Profile

Officers President

David W. Piston President-Elect Catherine Royer Past-President Angela Gronenborn Secretary Erin Sheets Treasurer Kalina Hristova Council Zev Bryant Linda Columbus Michelle A. Digman Marta Filizola Teresa Giraldez Ruben Gonzalez, Jr. Joseph A. Mindell Anna Moroni Marina Ramirez-Alvarado Jennifer Ross David Stokes Pernilla Wittung-Stafeshede Biophysical Journal Jane Dyson Editor-in-Chief The Biophysicist Sam Safran Editor-in-Chief

ing to work on such ambitious projects while also using the biggest supercomputers in the world.” Following her postdoc, she started as an assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, where her resources were diminished. “I had very few resources initially, and had to start from scratch. That provided me an opportunity to get into a whole new area of method development in computational biology,” she explains. “Faced with a seemingly unsurmountable problem, namely, how to access long timescale dynam- ics of biomolecules without access to massive supercomputers, I was forced to think deeper. While I had never worked with any method development group before, I became deeply interested in the field and started a whole new line of research. Eventually, as we got more resources, we were able to take up more com- plex problems.” During his postdoc at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Akash picked up an important technique, with the help of two mentors. “I started using analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC) because of Professor [ Borries ] Demeler , who mentored me in this technique. AUC is a first principles hydrody- namic technique that has been around for 90 years, but has finally become easily accessi- ble due to modern supercomputing facilities. AUC has a huge dynamic range and is capable of characterizing the dimeric state of small proteins like insulin all the way to ginormous entities like intact viruses,” he says. “Professor Demeler is a world leader in this technique and it was honestly a bit of a coincidence that we happened to work on the same campus and that my actual postdoc mentor, Professor Dmitri Ivanov , supported me in both learning a new technique and then in burning up lots of resources—such as samples and my own time—in optimizing experiments so that we could study HIV biophysics using AUC. Actually, it is not coincidence, it is good fortune to have such supportive mentors.” During Swati’s postdoc years, the siblings had once again been on the same continent. “Prac- tically the same neighborhood—the Midwest,” says Swati. “So naturally, we visited each other several times in that period and discussions would often turn to work. We did not actually

plan to work together at that time. But later, when I became a faculty [member], it seemed the most obvious thing to do.” Their decision to collaborate did indeed seem like a natural choice, as their interests lined up and they had developed complementary skills. “Swati is skilled and experienced in MD techniques. I have always wanted to do some MD work on the various HIV related systems that I have worked on, but never had the time to train myself in it,” Akash explains. “Besides, it is not like just using a plate reader, learning MD takes an entire PhD worth of hard work. So, we decided to start working together.” Akash is a Senior Applications Engineer at Beckman Coulter Life Sciences, where he works on extending AUC methodology to better characterize aggregate formation in biologics, viral capsid genome load, liposome and exosome drug and other cargo loading, and nanoparticles. He moonlights with Swati’s Bhattacharya Lab at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. Her lab works on de- ciphering SAMHD1, an anti-HIV protein (the project Akash contributes to), and studies rare event acceleration techniques applied to biomolecular systems. “The gap between timescales accessible to biomolecular simula- tions and many relevant biological processes presents a major challenge. We are developing a suite of techniques to combine rare event ac- celeration strategies, such as using high-tem- perature simulations or steered molecular dynamics with kinetic network model (Markov State Model or MSM) building techniques to overcome the timescale challenge,” she explains. “We are also working on applying our methods to a variety of problems.” The two agree on the best part of working with your sibling, and perhaps more importantly, agree that they haven’t faced any particular challenges because of their familial relation- ship. As Akash puts it, “I can ask exceedingly stupid questions without embarrassment. That is one of the best things about working with your sibling. You are not going to sub- stantively change the opinion that your elder sister holds about you. That was formed and pretty much set in stone in the early ‘90s.”

Society Office Jennifer Pesanelli Executive Officer Newsletter Executive Editor Jennifer Pesanelli Managing Editor Beth Staehle

Production Catie Curry Ray Wolfe

The Biophysical Society Newsletter (ISSN 0006-3495) is published eleven times per year, January-December, by the Biophysical Society, 5515 Security Lane, Suite 1110, Rockville, Maryland 20852. Distributed to USA members and other countries at no cost. Canadian GST No. 898477062. Postmaster: Send address changes to Biophysical Society, 5515 Security Lane, Suite 1110, Rockville, MD 20852. Copyright © 2019 by the Biophysical Society. Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

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