Biophysical Society Thematic Meeting | Canterbury 2023

Towards a More Perfect Union: Multi-Scale Models of Muscle and Their Experimental Validation

Welcome Letter

July 2023

Dear Colleagues, We would like to welcome you to the Biophysical Society Thematic Meeting Towards a More Perfect Union: Multi-Scale Models of Muscle and Their Experimental Validation , co-sponsored by the University of Washington Center for Translational Muscle Research. The thematic meeting series provides an opportunity for scientists in a more focused research area to meet and exchange ideas in different locations around the world in an environment that is more intimate than large annual meetings. We hope that this will provide a venue that stimulates discussion about recent exciting new advances in knowledge of muscle structure-function at multiple scales and how a new generation of technological advances in experimentation and computational approaches can be leveraged to provide new insights into the mechanisms of contraction and its dysfunction with muscle diseases. We are living through a period of rapid technological advances in gene engineering, molecular and cellular biology, and high-resolution imaging. For example, a revolution in cryo-electron microscopy and image reconstruction together with the enhanced power of computational modeling is beginning to provide high-resolution structures that offer mechanistic insight and, with sufficient validation, will become predictive tools to study the effects of disease-causing mutations. The new generation of experimental and computational modeling approaches that is emerging can also span multiple scales and provide both temporal and spatially-explicit properties and information. We hope that you will all actively take part in the discussions following each talk, in the poster sessions, and in the informal exchanges that will be possible during the coffee breaks, lunches, and the banquet. We also hope that you will enjoy the historic and beautiful surroundings of Canterbury and the local area!

The Organizing Committee Sylvia Blemker Michael Geeves William Lehman Neil Kad Andrew McCulloch Michael Regnier Jil Tardiff Jolanda van der Velden