Biophysical Society Newsletter - November 2016

23

BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER

2016

NOVEMBER

Thematic Meetings Liposomes, Exosomes, Virosomes: FromModeling Complex Membrane Processes to Medical Diagnostics and Drug Delivery

Attendees from five continents met at Monte Verità to discuss and share their research.

In September, approximately 120 biophysicists, cell biologists, bioengineers, and medical research- ers gathered at Monte Verità, above Ascona, over- looking Lago Maggiore in Southern Switzerland, for this Biophysical Society Thematic Meeting. The broad scientific program, beautiful historical venue (founded by vegetarians, anarchists, and art- ists around 1900) with a southern Mediterranean feel, excellent food, and perfect weather contrib- uted to the highly successful meeting of a very diverse group of participants from five continents. The program featured 30 invited speakers, 19 short talks selected from submitted abstracts, and more than 65 contributed posters. Many talks centered on how membrane vesicles are made in cells or artificially, and how they can be used in practical applications. Single-particle and high-res- olution optical approaches revealed the heteroge- neity of vesicle preparations and how large number averages may obscure important functional detail. Speakers showed how membrane proteins, pep- tides, and toxins are inserted into membranes, and how they harness vesicles to target them to specific locations in cells or even the human body. How vesicles fuse and deliver their contents to and from cells and how such particles could be used to

deliver cargo to desired locations in tissues were the topics of several lectures. Other speakers focused on the function of signaling proteins (GP- CRs, ion channels, transporters, tyrosine kinases) and the consequences of ligand and drug interac- tions. Yet other speakers elucidated how mem- branes are internally heterogeneous and change their shapes, dynamic properties, and distribution of components after stimulation by external fac- tors. The extremely high quality of the posters made it difficult to select winners for the Biophysical Journal and Congressi Stefano Franscini Poster Awards. Ultimately, three students and two post- docs were given these awards for their outstanding contributions. The meeting was organized by (left to

right) Horst Vogel , EPFL Lausanne, Daniel Müller , ETH Zürich, and Lukas Tamm , University of Virginia.