Biophysical Society Newsletter | July 2017

21

BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER

2017

JULY

honorable mention. Finally, after three presenta- tions by worthy trainees, the Student Research Achievement Award was awarded to Divakaran Murugesapi , Northeastern University, for his poster Mitochondrial Protein ABF2P Intercalates, Bends, Loops, and Compacts DNA. — Elizabeth Jonas , Co-Chair, Bioenergetics Subgroup — George Porter , Co-Chair, Bioenergetics Subgroup Exocytosis & Endocytosis The Exocytosis & Endocytosis Subgroup had a great meeting this year organized by Brian Salz- berg , University of Pennsylvania. The meeting started with three student talks by Alex Kreutzberger , University of Virginia; Joan- nalyn Delacruz , Cornell University; and Natasha Dudzinski , Yale University. These were selected from the several dozen poster submissions by student members in the subgroup. Excellent presentations followed by José Lemos, University of Massachusetts; Erwin Neher , Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry; Amy Lee , University of Iowa; Xuelin Lou , University of Wisconsin; fol- lowed by the Katz Award Lecture, The Long Road to Micro-Dynamic Presynatpic FRET Measurements , given by Robert Zucker , University of Califor- nia, Berkeley. Zucker was selected for the Katz award for his extensive studies on the mechanisms of transmitter release and short-term synaptic plasticity. He has developed novel methods for measuring intracellular calcium concentrations using aequorin and arsenazo III and used them to provide the first measurement of residual calcium during synaptic facilitation in the squid giant synapse. In the several decades that followed, he has continued to explore the calcium regulation of voltage-activated ion channels, neuronal growth, long-term depression at the NMJ, and depolariza- tion-induced suppression of inhibition. The bulk of his effort has been devoted to quantifying the role of calcium in exocytosis at a variety of syn- apses. The previous five Katz award winners were Sandra Schmid (2016), Ronald Holz (2015),

Axel Brunger (2014), James Rothman (2013), and Pietro De Camilli (2012). We thank Brian Salzberg for a great meeting and look forward to an exciting meeting next year in San Francisco on Saturday, February 17, 2018. Mark your calendars! — Dixon J. Woodbury , Chair, Exocytosis & Endocytosis Subgroup Membrane Biophysics The 2017 Membrane Biophysics Subgroup sym- posium was held at the Annual Biophysical Society Meeting in New Orleans, February 11, 2017. The symposium on sensors was chaired by Teresa Giráldez , University of La Laguna, Spain. The membrane is the frontier between the cell inte- rior and the outside world, and many membrane proteins act as sensors of internal and external signals, including light, temperature, stretch, voltage, pH, or intracellular signaling molecules. The session featured some of the most innovative investigators in this area, who presented state-of- the-art research on the fundamental biophysical properties of such sensors, at the molecular level, as well as their impact on cellular processes, in a physiological context. Peter Hegemann , Humbolt University, Germany, led off the program with his outstanding work on the molecular mechanisms