Biophysical Society Bulletin | September 2020

Publications

The Biophysicist : New Issue Available Now! The Biophysicist is the newBPS journal that highlights biophysics education and its scholarship and development. All articles in this open access publication are freely available online. Newly released Issue 2 includes articles on biophysics in isolation, virus particle mechanics, machine learning, andmore. Because people never stop learning, the journal delivers evidence-based ped- agogical practice in a way that is accessible to individuals at all levels: K-12 and public outreach, undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate students and trainees, active researchers, and scholars of biophysics teaching and learning. View online at www.thebiophysicist.org. BPS-IOP eBooks Series Welcomes New Editor, Launches Online Bookstore We are happy to announce some important changes for our eBook program—a partnership between the Biophysical Society and IOP Publishing. First, we are excited to welcome Michael Slaughter as our new Senior Commissioning Editor. Michael’s background includes a wealth of experience in bioengineering, medical physics, and biophysics. He has previously commissioned books for publishers CRC Press and Taylor & Francis. Although employed by IOP Publishing, which is based in Bristol, United Kingdom, Michael is based in California. We look forward to the new titles Michael will bring to our growing program. IOP has launched their new bookstore (https:/store.ioppublishing. org/). There you can purchase print and digital copies of our books directly from the website for the first time—plus all Biophysical Society members will receive a 30 percent discount on not just the BPS Series, but all IOP Publishing titles (use code BPS30 at checkout). There are hundreds of titles available in IOP’s growing collection across the physical sciences. Explore the site to see the huge selection of current and soon-to-be-published titles! Upcoming additions to the BPS Series include: An Introduction to Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy, Modeling and Simu- lating Cardiac Electrical Activity, Solid-State NMR: Applications in Biomembrane Structure, and CalciumSignals: FromSingle Molecules to Physiology. Books are available inmultiple formats, including HTML, PDF, EPUB 3, andMOBI for Kindle so that books will be available to read on different devices and with options for multimedia andmathML. Print on demand is also available.

Know the Editor Ahmet Yildiz

University of California, Berkeley Editor, Molecular Machines, Motors, and Nanoscale Biophysics Biophysical Journal

Ahmet Yildiz

What are you currently working on? We are interested in understanding how molecular motors transport intracellular cargos and power cell motility. We are currently focused on the cytoplasmic dynein motor, which drives nearly all motility and forces generation functions towards the minus-ends of microtubules. Over the past two decades, we studied how dynein “walks” along microtubules, and generates forces. More recently, our interest has shifted towards understanding how accessory factors play a role in recruiting and activating dynein at the right location and time. To achieve this goal, we attempt to reconstitute dynein-driv- en transport in vitro and then study how cofactors and other regulatory components affect dynein motility using sin- gle-molecule and cryo-electron imaging. Our long-term goal is to understand molecular rules that control the recruitment and motility of dynein and its opponent kinesin to achieve bidirectional transport of cellular cargos. What has been your most exciting discovery as a biophysicist? I developed a microscopy method that localizes single fluo- rophores with nanometer precision and used this method to show how myosin, kinesin, and dynein motors take steps and move processively along the cytoskeleton. Building a Library for Biophysics We are currently commissioning future titles for the BPS series of biophysics ebooks. If you have an idea for a book, we would like to explore it with you! To get things started, submit a sum- mary of the topic, concept, and potential audience, to michael. slaughter@ioppublishing.org. Please be sure to include current contact information. Full proposals are reviewed by a specially selected editorial advisory board, comprising BPS members who are experts from the biophysics community and represent a wide spec- trum of research areas.

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