Biophysical Society Thematic Meeting | Riga 2026

Active and Responsive Soft Matter: From Biological to Engineered Systems

Thursday Speaker Abstracts

EFFECTS OF TUBULIN ISOTYPES ON MICROTUBULE FUNCTION AND DYNAMICS David Sept 1 ; 1 University of Michigan, Biomedical Engineering, Ann Arbor, MI, USA Microtubules are key members of the eukaryotic cytoskeleton and they play a role in a wide range of cellular functions, including transport, motility, and mitosis. These filaments are formed by the polymerization of the protein tubulin and their functions are largely mediated by the binding and action of many different microtubule-binding proteins or MAPs. Over the last decade or so, there has been a growing understanding of how the many tubulin isotypes as well as post-translational modifications — what is commonly termed the tubulin code, influence the structure, dynamics and interactions of tubulin and microtubules. Since most of the isotype sequence differences fall in unstructured parts of the protein, this system is ideal for studying using molecular simulations. In this talk I will present some of our recent work in this area and show how these localized isotype differences manifest themselves in microtubule function, dynamics and mechanics. CONFORMATIONAL ENSEMBLES AND CONDUCTIVITY MODELING IN TETRAMERIC ION CHANNEL RECEPTORS Cynthia Reinhardt-King 1 ; 1 Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA No Abstract

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