Biophysical Society Newsletter - October 2014

Newsletter OCTOBER 2014

DEADLINES

Seven Society Members Named 2015 Awardees The Biophysical Society is proud to announce

Congressional Fellowship Application October 14 Application Submission Networking Event Proposals October 30

Meyer Jackson , University of Wisconsin, will be honored with the Emily M. Gray Award for his mentorship, undergraduate classroom activities, leadership in graduate education, and his book, Molecular and Cellular Biophysics , which fills a critical gap in educational materials.

the recipients of the seven 2015 Society awards. These members will be honored at the Society's 59 th Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland in February.

Anthony Watts , University of Oxford, will receive the Anatrace Membrane Protein Award for his innovative development of spectroscopic methodologies, which has

59 th Annual Meeting

Harold Scheraga , Cornell University, will receive the Founders Award for his

February 7-11, 2015 Baltimore, Maryland

monumental and continuing contributions, both theoretical and experimental, to the biophysics of protein structure and folding.

provided novel insights into membrane protein structure and function. Gerald Feigenson , Cornell University, will be presented with the Avanti Award in Lipids for his many publications, been cited profusely, with an aggregate number of more than 5,000 citations. Kamal Shukla , NSF, will be awarded the Distinguished Service Award for his tireless efforts in promoting research at the interface between the biological and physical sciences and exceptional leadership in uniting scientists from across many Directorates at NSF. which have had a major impact on the field of lipids and have

December 5 Student Housing January 7 Early Registration Late Abstract Submission Luncheon Registration January 22 Hotel Room Block Reservation Child Care Pre-registration January 30 Undergraduate Mixer and Poster Fest Registration

Sarah Teichmann , EMBL-EBI, will be awarded the Michael and Kate Bárány Award for Young Investigators for her fundamen- tal insights into protein biophys- ics, specifically in the field of Antonina Roll-Mecak , NINDS, NHLBI, NIH, will be presented with the Margaret Oakley Day- hoff Award for her work as a first-rate crystallographer, possessing a broad base of

protein complexes and gene regulation.

talents in protein chemistry and cell biology. The 2015 Society Fellows will be announced in the November newsletter.

CONTENTS

2 4 5 6 8

10 10 11

Biophysicist in Profile Biophysical Journal Thematic Meetings

Grants and Opps

Members in the News

Biophysical Society

Subgroups

12

Annual Meeting

Upcoming Events

Public Affairs

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Biophysicists in Profile Malin Suurkuusk , Product Manager and Application Scientist at TA Instru- ments, grew up in Virginia with a calorimeter lab in her house, so it is no surprise that she became a scientist. Her father, Jaak Suurkuusk, was a ther- mochemist who designed calorimeters that would be able to measure heat capacities of biological systems. He started out by designing calorimeters during his postdoc, in order to be able to determine some of the thermody- namic parameters needed for their study. Following his postdoc, he became more focused on calorimeter design and less involved in experimentation, eventually opening his own business. Over time, the business became a family affair; Suurkuusk began assist- ing her father in his lab at age thirteen, and her mother, sister, and brother became involved in administration, marketing, and programming. When she started high school, she was already familiar with a scientific setting and many of the tools therein. She had also developed a great interest in science, inspired by her father’s work. She says of her father, “He is a visionary when it comes to calorimetry and thermodynamics.” Following in his footsteps, she chose to study math, chemistry, and physics in high school. MALIN SUURKUUSK

Officers President Dorothy Beckett President-Elect Edward Egelman Past-President Francisco Bezanilla Secretary Lukas Tamm Treasurer Paul Axelsen Council Olga Boudker Taekjip Ha Samantha Harris Kalina Hristova Juliette Lecomte Amy Lee Marcia Levitus Merritt Maduke Daniel Minor, Jr. Jeanne Nerbonne Antoine van Oijen Joseph D. Puglisi Michael Pusch Bonnie Wallace David Yue Biophysical Journal Leslie Loew Editor-in-Chief

“ I am really impressed by earlier scientists when so much was still unknown and they did not have the tools we have today. Also being a woman in research those days, when all of society was very male-dominat- ed. I admire those who did this pio- neering work. ” – Malin Suurkuusk

When Suurkuusk began her un- dergraduate degree at Stockholm University, she was unsure about which STEM subject she would pursue. “I could not choose be- tween math and natural science with a major in chemistry,” she says, “I applied to both, but the natural science courses started a day before the math courses.” Suurkuusk took the timing as a sign, and decided to focus on biochemistry. She took classes in physical chemistry and neurochemistry during this time as well, and graduated with her master’s degree in biochemistry. She

Society Office Ro Kampman Executive Officer Newsletter Ray Wolfe Alisha Yocum Production Laura Phelan Profile

Ellen Weiss Public Affairs

The Biophysical Society Newsletter (ISSN 0006-3495) is published twelve times per year, January- December, by the Biophysical Society, 11400 Rockville Pike, Suite 800, Rockville, Maryland 20852. Distributed to USA members and other countries at no cost. Canadian GST No. 898477062. Postmaster: Send address changes to Biophysical Society, 11400 Rockville Pike, Suite 800, Rockville, MD 20852. Copyright © 2014 by the Biophysical Society. Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

says, “When I was looking for a graduate position, I wanted to learn more about physical methods for the study of biological and biochemical systems, even if I did not call it biophysics at the time.” Suurkuusk earned her PhD conducting research in the thermochemistry department at Lund University and in an industrial setting at Pharmacia. Working in industry at this point in her career brought a particularly dif- ficult set of challenges. In her first two years, she worked on several projects that were subsequently closed by the company. She came away with noth- ing to publish. After the first few years, she began working on a project

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that was very promising, but then was sold to another company, which served a real blow to her progress. She had now spend more than half of her time as a PhD student working on projects that she could not finish. Suurkuusk spoke with her superiors at Pharmacia, and they agreed that the company was responsible for providing her with an opportunity to finish her PhD. She was allowed to continue the project that had been sold, and was even able to publish her findings. Suurkuusk explains, “I was very relieved that I was allowed to continue with this, as there was no time to start over again.” Additionally, because she was now the only scientist in the company work- ing on the project, she was able to explore new aspects of the project that the company had not originally intended to pursue. Suurkuusk com- pleted her PhD in 1999, and then worked as a Product Manager at Thermometric AB, where she stayed for several years, eventually moving into a position as a Marketing Manager. In her current dual position as Product Manager and Application Scientist at TA Instruments Sweden, Suurkuusk spends half of her time on each job. As an appli- cation scientist, she helps with proof of concept for new users of calorimetry and gives theoretical and practical training. In addition, she travels to universities to teach short graduate courses in calorimetry. In her capacity as a product manager, she is part of the team making decisions about the company’s microcalorimeter product line. This team explores what new features and instrumenta- tion are needed, what new accessories could be produced, and how new software features could enhance the product. Suurkuusk also works on pairing microcalorimetric techniques with other biophysical characterization techniques to get more information from a studied system. Suurkuusk finds fulfillment in introducing people to what calorimetry can do. She says, “As a calo- rimetrist, studying interactions between biological molecules, it is fascinating how much informa- tion you can get from the measurement of heat if you combine it with structural data from other

techniques…The most rewarding part is when I manage to show someone what a fantastic tool calo- rimetry is. I was once on a courtesy visit in a lab with one of our users. Before I left I was invited for a glass of champagne to make a toast for the inventor of the fantastic instrument, our calorimeter.” The only downside to her dual position is that she is

Suurkuusk with her two sons at Legoland.

unable to explore new ideas in the lab or delve deeply into a project. When she struggles with this, Suurkuusk finds inspiration in the lives of pioneering women scientists, such as Marie Curie . She elaborates, “I am really impressed by earlier scientists when so much was still unknown and they did not have the tools we have today. Also being a woman in research [in] those days, when all of society was very male-dominated. I admire those who did this pioneering work.” Though science, and especially calorimetry, have been deeply ingrained in Suurkuusk since child- hood, if she were not a scientist, she would have pursued a career in fashion design. She loves to sew and knit as a hobby now, and says, “I have always had a dream to design and make clothes. This was something I did when I was younger. I took several courses related to textile work. Today I have hardly any time for these kinds of activities, but it is something I still like to do.” Suurkuusk also enjoys hiking and swimming in her spare time, and working in her garden outside. Most of all, she loves spending time with her sons, who are 10 and 12 years old. For those who are currently starting out in biophysics, Suurkuusk advocates an openness to unexpected twists and turns. She says, “Have fun, stay curious, and be open minded. Maybe it is from the sidetracks that you learn the most.”

Profilee at-a Glance

Malin Suurkuusk Company TA Instruments Course of Study Biochemistry

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Biophysical Journal Corner

Know the Editors

Issue Highlights Don’t miss these highlights in the October 7 issue of Biophysical Journal .

Alan Grodzinsky Massachusetts Institute of Technology Editor for Systems Biophysics Section

To read the articles visit www.biophysj.org.

Biophysical Review:

Alan Grodzinsky

Hugh E. Huxley: The Compleat Biophysicist by Sarah Hitchcock-DeGregori and Thomas Irving. New & Notables Monitoring of Single Vesicle Cytochrome c Release Illuminates BAK as a Novel Target of Abeta Oligomers by Daniel Linseman, which highlights the paper Beta-Amyloid Oligomers Activate Apoptotic BAK Pore for Cytochrome c Release by Jaewook Kim, Yoosoo Yang, Seung Soo Song, Jung-Hyun Na, Cherlhyun Jeong, and Yeon Gyu Yu. Channelrhodopsin Photochromic Reactions Provide Multi-Color Optogenetic Control by John Spudich, which highlights the paper Imaging GFP-Based Reporters in Neurons with Multi-Wavelength Optogenetic Control by Adam Cohen and Veena Venkatachalam. The Many Roles of a Journal Publisher Have you ever wondered what a journal publisher does besides facilitating the peer review of manuscripts? Last year, the blog Scholarly Kitchen posted a piece by Kent Anderson that lists 73 things publishers do. Biophysical Journal partners with Cell Press to perform many of these functions.

Q: What is your area of research? Our group focuses on problems motivated by diseases of the musculoskeletal system includ- ing arthritis, connective tissue pathologies, and, more generally, the molecular biophysics of the extracellular matrix (ECM). As an example, it is well known that traumatic joint injury in humans causes cartilage degeneration and progression to post-traumatic osteoarthritis, but the mechanobio- logical mechanisms governing cellular transcrip- tion, translation, and post-translational responses to physical overload are not well understood. We use genomic and proteomic tools to identify key pathways associated with mechanical injury and the resulting cell-mediated proteolytic degrada- tion of the ECM. Atomic force microscopy and related biophysical tools are used to image and probe the molecular structure of ECM proteogly- cans and proteins synthesized by connective tissue cells in health and disease. Nanoindentation at the molecular, cellular, and tissue levels aids in the discovery of molecular determinants underlying tissue pathology. Complementary projects focus on chondrogenesis of stem cells seeded within self- assembling peptide hydrogel scaffolds for repair of degraded or osteoarthritic cartilage. The molecu- lar fine structure of stem cell-synthesized ECM molecules and the responses of these stem cells to physiological loading during and after differentia- tion are studied in vitro . Concurrent studies using small and large animal models are ongoing. Finally, there are currently no available disease-modifying drugs for osteoarthritis due, in part, to lack of appropriate delivery modalities. We are, therefore, studying the ability of electrostatic interactions linked to charged ECM molecules within target tissues to enable enhanced uptake, rapid penetra- tion, and retention of potential therapeutics.

View the blog post at http://bit.ly/1kLu3Y6.

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Thematic Meetings New Biological Frontiers Illuminated by Molecular Sensors and Actuators June 28–July 1, 2015, Taipei, Taiwan GIS Convention Center at National Taiwan University

Sanjay Kumar , University of California, Berkeley Rong Li , Stowers Institute for Medical Research Yulong Li , Center for Life Sciences, China Jung-Chi Liao , Academia Sinica, Taiwan Ian Liau , National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan Tobias Meyer , Stanford University, USA Stephen Michnick , University of Montréal, Canada Atsushi Miyawaki , RIKEN, Japan Takeharu Nagai , Osaka University, Japan Mark Prescott , Monash University, Australia Chandra Tucker , University of Colorado, Denver Lee-Wei Yang , National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan Wei-Yuan Yang, Academia Sinica, Taiwan David Yue , Johns Hopkins University Jin Zhang , Johns Hopkins University Zhihong Zhang , Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronic, China

This meeting will explore a variety of cutting edge research tools that are critical to our understand- ing of cell signaling and cellular structures in a wide range of biological systems. Due to the mul- tidisciplinary nature of such studies, we encourage participation by a diverse range of researchers with interests that span the biological, chemical, and physical sciences.

Speakers

Ann-Shyn Chiang , National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan

Adam Cohen , Harvard University Bianxiao Cui , Stanford University Maxime Dahan , Pierre-and-Marie-Curie University, France Yves de Koninck , University Institute of Mental Health Québec, Canada Cees Dekker , Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands Sophie Dumont , University of California, San Francisco Oliver Griesbeck , Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Germany Zoher Gueroui , École Normale Supérieure (ENS), Paris, France Kenzo Hirose , University of Tokyo, Japan Hsiao-Chun Huang , National Taiwan University, Taiwan Janet Iwasa , University of Utah Etsuko Kiyokawa , Kanazawa University, Japan

Deadlines

Abstract Submission: March 1, 2015 Early Registration: April 6, 2015

Visit www.biophysics.org/2015taiwan for more information

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59 th Annual Meeting February 7-11, 2015 | Baltimore, Maryland

Quotes from Students who Attended the Meeting

Student Opportunities at the Annual Meeting  Are you a student or are you a faculty member planning to bring your students to Baltimore? There are several sessions throughout the meeting targeted specifically to students. These sessions aim to provide graduate and undergraduate students the opportunity to network with faculty members from around the world and to discuss different career paths after graduation.

Graduate Student Breakfast Monday, February 9, 7:30–8:30 am This breakfast presents an opportunity for gradu- ate student members of the Society to meet and discuss the issues they face in their current career stage. Members of the Early Careers Committee will be available to answer questions about how the committee serves graduate students in the biophysical community.

"As a student look- ing to broaden my career in that direction [systems biology], it was super gratifying to see so many new approaches and how other scientists think about these techniques.” — Amicia Elliott , NIH “As a graduate student, the meeting was an important opportunity to network, see where fields are heading, and to get feedback and input on my current work.” — Mario Rosasco ,

Undergraduate Student “Breakfast” Monday, February 9, 11:30 am –1:00 pm Undergrads: plan to attend this unique network- ing event! This session will serve as a valuable networking and social opportunity to meet other students and Education Committee members, to discuss academic goals and questions, and to develop a biophysics career path. The 2015 Emily Gray Awardee, Meyer Jackson , from the Univer- sity of Wisconsin-Madison, will also give a talk at this event.

Undergraduate Student Mixer and Poster Fest Saturday, February 7, 4:00-5:00 pm

University of Washington

A social and scientific mixer for all undergradu- ate students attending the meeting. Come meet other undergraduates and learn about their research projects. Undergraduates listed as co- authors on posters are welcome to practice their poster presentation skills in a less formal setting, even if you are not listed as the presenting author. For undergrads who will be presenting during the standard scientific sessions, the mixer provides an additional opportunity to hone presentation skills. Pre-registration is required to present, but not to attend. The registration deadline is January 30. Visit the website to access the registration form.

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BRIDGING THE SCIENCES: COMPUTATION AND EXPERIMENT

Graduate & Postdoc Institution Fair Monday, February 9, 1:00–3:00 pm Are you thinking about grad school or starting to look for a postdoc position? Attend the Graduate & Postdoc Fair. Representatives from over 40 different institutions with biophysics programs will be on hand to answer questions, distribute literature, and discuss opportunities for students and postdocs.

Undergraduate Student Lounge

Looking for a quiet space to work on assign- ments for your courses? Or, want to meet other undergraduate attendees? Be sure to swing by the Undergraduate Student Lounge, a room specifi- cally for undergraduate students to do classwork and meet each other. Student Housing Deadline: December 5 Affordable student housing is available for under- graduate and graduate student meeting attendees who are current Society members. To secure student housing, complete the online registration form that can be found on the Annual Meeting website under 'Travel'. The Society will verify all reservations upon completion.

Stay Updated

Use the hashtag #bps15 to receive the latest updates about the 2015 Annual Meeting on Twitter ( @biophysicalsoc ) and Facebook (Biophysical Society).

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Public Affairs

researchers to get consent from participants for future unspecified use of their genomic data.” For complete information about genomic data sharing and a link to the GDS policy, see http:// gds.nih.gov. 2014 Golden Goose Award Winners Honored The 2014 class of Golden Goose Award winners were honored at a reception on September 18 at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. The Award, in its third year, honors scientists whose federally funded research may not have seemed to have significant practical applications at the time it was conducted but has resulted in major economic and other benefits to society. The 2014 winners are: Saul Schanberg , professor at Duke University before his death in 2009; Tiffany Martini Field , director of the Touch Research Institute and professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Psy- chology and Psychiatry at the University of Miami Medical School; Cynthia Kuhn , professor of pharmacology and cancer biology at the Duke University School of Medicine; and Gary Evoniuk , director of publication practices at GlaxoSmith- Kline for their discovery that touch, in the form of infant massage, can vastly improve the outcome for babies born prematurely. The discovery arose from NIH-funded research on infant rats and has affected millions of lives around the world and saved billions of dollars in healthcare costs in the United States alone. The ground breaking work was conducted at Duke University in 1979 by Schanberg, Kuhn, and Evoniuk and at the Univer- sity of Miami by Field; Larry Smarr , professor of computer science and engineering at the University of California, San Diego, and Director of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technol- ogy, for his NSF-funded research on colliding black holes in space that led to the development of US supercomputing capabilities and the creation of the first Internet browsers; and Robert Wilson ,

NIH Unveils New Genomic Data Sharing Policy The National Institutes of Health issued a final NIH Genomic Data Sharing (GDS) policy on August 26. The new policy takes affect for appli- cations submitted for the January 25, 2015 receipt date and applies to all NIH-funded, large-scale human and non-human projects that generate genomic data. The GDS policy is an extension of and replaces the Genome-Wide Association Stud- ies (GWAS) data sharing policy. Since 2007, the GWAS policy has governed biomedical research- ers’ submission and access to human data through the NIH database for Genotypes and Phenotypes (dbGaP). GWAS made some information and data available to the public without restrictions, while other data was made available only for research purposes consistent with the consent provided by participants in the original study. The two-tiered system will continue under the GDS policy, but researchers are now expected to obtain the informed consent of study participants for the potential future use of their de-identified data for research and for broad sharing. Investiga- tors will also be expected to use data only for the approved research, protect data confidentiality (including not sharing the data with unauthor- ized people), and acknowledge data-submitting investigators in presentations and publications. Institutions will also be required to certify that data were collected in a legal and ethically appro- priate manner and personal identifiers have been removed, and institutions as well as investigators must include plans to follow the GDS policy in their funding proposals. “The collective knowledge achieved through data sharing benefits researchers and patients alike, but it must be done carefully,” said Kathy Hudson , NIH deputy director for science, outreach and policy, in a press release. The GDS policy outlines the responsibilities of investigators and institu- tions that are using the data and also encourages

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professor emeritus at Stanford University; Paul Milgrom , professor at Stanford University; and R. Preston McAfee , chief economist at Microsoft, for their research on game theory and auctions that led to the first auctioning of the spectrum by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1994 and the subsequent rapid advance of the global telecommunications industry. The research was funded by the Atomic Energy Commission, National Science Foundation, and Office of Naval Research. US Representative Jim Cooper (D-TN) first proposed the Golden Goose Award when the late Senator William Proxmire (D-WI) was issuing the Golden Fleece Award to target wasteful federal spending and often targeted peer-reviewed science because it sounded odd. Cooper believed such an award was needed to counter the false impression that odd-sounding research was not useful. In response to that proposal, a coalition of business, university, and scientific organizations created the Golden Goose Award in 2012. The coalition be- lieves that federally funded basic scientific research is the cornerstone of American innovation and essential to our economic growth, health, global competitiveness, and national security. Award recipients are selected by a panel of respected scien- tists and university research leaders. The Biophysi- cal Society joined the coalition in 2013 and is a sponsor of this year’s awards. The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculo- skeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), NIH, has ap- pointed five new members to its advisory council. The new members are Gary A. Koretzky , Weill Cor- nell Graduate School of Medical Sciences; Grace K. Pavlath , Emory University School of Medicine; Christy Sandborg , Stanford University School of Medicine; Alexander Silver , P2 Capital Partners LLC and the Jackson Gabriel Silver Foundation; and Gwendolyn Powell Todd , professional advocate for patients with cicatricial alopecia. NIAMS Appoints New Council Members

The mission of the NIAMS is to support research into the causes, treatment and prevention of arthritis and musculoskeletal and skin diseases; the training of basic and clinical scientists to carry out this research; and the dissemination of informa- tion on research progress in these diseases. Council members provide advice to the institute on broad policy issues and make recommendations on research proposals. Congressional Science & Technology Policy Fellowship Interested in using your science skills to inform science policy? Interested in spending a year working on Capitol Hill in Washington helping develop policy?

Apply to be the first BPS Congressional Fellow!

Application deadline: October 14, 2014

Visit www.biophysics.org for additional information.

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Grants and Opportunities

Adam Cohen , Harvard University and Society member since 2009, was awarded the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists given by the Blavatnik Family Foundation. Members in the News

Alan T. Waterman Award Objective: To recognize an outstanding young researcher in any field of science or en- gineering supported by the National Science Foundation. Who Can Apply: US citizens or permanent residents who are 35 years of age or younger or not more than 7 years beyond receipt of the PhD degree by December 31, 2014. Candidates should have demonstrated excep- tional individual achievements in scientific or engineering research of sufficient quality to place them at the forefront of their peers. Deadline: October 24, 2014 Website: http://www.nsf.gov/od/waterman/ waterman.jsp#eligibility_criteria Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience (CRCNS) Objective: To support collaborative activities that will advance the understanding of ner- vous system structure and function, mecha- nisms underlying nervous system disorders, and computational strategies used by the nervous system. Deadline: October 28, 2014 Website: http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_ summ.jsp?pims_id=5147

November Networking Events

Blacksburg, Virginia November 6 Virginia Tech

Jülich, Germany November 6 Forschungszentrum Jülich

For more information visit www.biophysics.org and then go to 'Meetings' then 'Networking Events'.

BPS at SACNAS and ABRCMS Coming to the Society for Advancement of Hispanics/Chicanos and Native Americans in Science National Con- ference (SACNAS ) or Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) this fall? See the Biophysical Society in Los Angeles at SACNAS at Booth 650 and in San Antonio at ABRCMS at Booth 463!

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Subgroups

Q: What got you into science? Singular event, or a process? It was a process. As a child of the 1950’s, the space program drove me towards technology. I started out in automotive engineering at Bradley Univer- sity because I loved working on cars. However, after a month of learning about threads and ball bearings, I was bored. My toughest and most interesting class was chemistry. I could see that the subject was so deep that I would never get all the way to the bottom of it. With this in mind, I decided to switch to chemistry as a major and never looked back. Professor Singh opened my eyes to physical chemistry, and Professor De Pinto to biochemistry. I owe my transition to my UNC colleague Linda Spremulli . When I was an assistant professor, Linda would say, “Gary all that enthalpy and en- tropy of protein folding that your group measures in buffer is great, but cells are crowded”. I let this sink in for several years. After reading a slew of Allen Minton papers, I thought this would be a challenging new direction. Q: Tell us about how your research work has migrated to Biophysics in vivo (BIV)?

Motility The Motility Subgroup Symposium on Saturday, February 7, will begin at 1:00 pm and include the speakers listed below. For specific times and location, please refer to the Motility Subgroup web page which can be found at www.biophysics. org. Click 'About Us' and then click 'Subgroups'. Confirmed speakers for the symposium include: Erika Holzbaur , Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania; Richard McKenney , University of California, San Francisco; Joseph M. Muretta , University of Minnesota; Sivaraj Sivara- makishnan , University of Michigan; and Christine Cremo , University of Nevada School of Medicine. The Business Meeting will take place at 3:30 pm, and the keynote will be presented by David Warshaw , University of Vermont, at 5:20 pm. We encourage you to support the Motility Subgroup Symposium. Membership is free for students and $20 for Biophysical Society members. The registration form can be found on the Society website. Go to 'About Us' and then 'Subgroups'. Membership allows sponsorship of the Student Research Achievement Award, ensures ample seating for the session, as well as snacks and more coffee for attendees of the symposium. Looking forward to seeing you in Baltimore! — Jeffrey Moore , Motility Subgroup Chair BIV Keeping up with the Crowd For this issue, we interviewed one of the pio- neers of in-cell NMR spectroscopy, Gary Pielak , University of North Carolina (UNC), where he is currently the Glen H. Elder Jr. Distinguished Professor. He shares what got him into the field as well as some practical advice.

Q: Tell us about an open problem of central importance in BIV.

In my opinion, understanding native quinary interactions, as defined by McConkey , is the next challenge. We are beginning to understand how the intracellular environment affects biophysics. Now it is time to understand how the inherent organization of the cytoplasm affects biophysics.

Q: What advice can you give young biophysicists interested in research?

PIs nowadays are pressured into writing more proposals and spending less time working with their students. Find a mentor who will spend time to train you! — Martin Gruebele , Chair-Elect of BIV Subgroup

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UPCOMING EVENTS

BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2014

December

January

February

March

December 3-5 NIMBioS Investigative Work- shop: Heart Rhythm Disorders Dubai, United Arab Emirates http://www.nimbios.org/ workshops/WS_cardiac December 13-17 AFM BioMed Conference San Diego, California http://www.afmbiomed.org/

January 15-16 NIMBioS Investigative Workshop: Lymphoid Cells in Acute Inflammation Knoxville, TN http://www.nimbios.org/work- shops/WS_lymphoid January 18-23 Chloroplast Biotechnology: Reengi- neering Photosynthetic Organelles Ventura, CA https://www.grc.org/programs. aspx?id=16860

February 17-22 RNA Silencing in Plants (G1) Keystone, Colorado

March 14-15 Lysosomal Diseases (GRS) Galveston, Texas https://www.grc.org/programs. aspx?id=15657 March 28-April 1 Experimental Biology 2015 Boston, MA http://www.asbmb.org/meet- ing2015/

https://www.keystonesymposia. org/index.cfm?e=web.Meeting. Program&meetingid=1363

February 22-27 Ions at Work: From Reaction Dynamics to Macromolecular Structure Galveston, Texas https://www.grc.org/programs. aspx?id=12290

Please visit www.biophysics.org for a complete list of upcoming events.

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