Biophysical Society Thematic Meeting - October 25-30, 2015

Polymers and Self Assembly: From Biology to Nanomaterials

Welcome Letter

October 2015

Dear Colleagues, We would like to welcome you to the Biophysical Society Thematic Meeting, Polymers and Self Assembly: From Biology to Nanomaterials , co-sponsored by the Brazilian agencies FAPERJ and CNPq. These Thematic Meetings are an opportunity for scientists who might not normally meet together to gather and exchange ideas in different locations around the world. Previous Thematic Meetings have been held in China, Singapore, the United States, India, South Korea, Ireland, Poland, Turkey, Taiwan and Spain. Future meetings are already scheduled for South Africa, Canada and Switzerland. Our meeting is aimed at bringing together biophysicists who study protein polymers, both those occurring normally, such as bacterial flagellar filaments, F-actin and microtubules, and those occurring pathologically, such as amyloid, with materials scientists, chemists and physicists who work on synthetic peptides, polymers and designed structures. Great advances that have recently been made in cryo-EM, which now allow many polymers to be readily solved at a near-atomic resolution, helped stimulate the organization of this meeting, but we look forward to presentations using many different techniques that are helping to elucidate the structure of these self-assembled polymers. 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, the banquet and the excursion. We also hope that you will enjoy the beautiful surroundings of Rio de Janeiro!

The Organizing Committee Vince Conticello

Edward Egelman

Louise Serpell

Jerson Silva Ting Xu

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