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BPS Blog

Welcome to the BPS Blog. Our blog provides the unique opportunity to share with the biophysics community worldwide BPS-related news, updates, and biophysics content. The interdisciplinary nature of biophysics provides the opportunity for biologists, physicists, chemists, bioengineers, and others to collaborate and push scientific discoveries. Check back often for the latest news and updates.  

An Interview with Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy

BJ: How did you compose the image on the July 12 issue of Biophysical Journal?

AR: We used Visual Molecular Dynamics software (http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/) and the program Persistence of Vision Raytracer (http://www.povray.org/) to create the image. 

BJ: How does this image reflect your scientific research?

AR: This image represents our molecular vision of the role of cholesterol in amylin-mediated membrane damage.

BJ: Can you please provide a real-world example of how your research might be applied?

AR: Is hypercholesterolemia related to an increased risk to develop type 2 diabetes? The main goal of our research is to provide a molecular framework for the relationship between diet and lifestyle and proteinopathies.

BJ: How does your research apply to those who are not working in your specific field?

AR: Clinicians will find this study to be useful to gain insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying type 2 diabetes development. In particular, this may help them to better correlate symptoms with lifestyle.

BJ: Do you have a website where our readers can view your recent research?

AR: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Carmelo_La_Rosa and http://rams.biop.lsa.umich.edu/, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Danilo_Milardi.

- Michele Sciacca, Fabio Lolicato, Giacomo Di Mauro, Danilo Milardi, Luisa D'Urso, Cristina Satriano, Carmelo La Rosa, Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy

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«November 2024»
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11/1/2024
16082

Know the Editor: Yuval Ebenstein

Each issue of BPS Bulletin highlights an editor from the Editorial Board of one of the BPS publications. For the November 2024 issue, we are highlighting Yuval Ebenstein, an associate editor for Biophysical Reports.

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11/5/2024
16109

Structural Dynamics of TAR DNA Binding Protein 43RNA Recognition Motif Domains With and Without RNA

The cover image of the November 5 issue of Biophysical Journal highlights our research on the structural dynamics of the RNA recognition motif (RRM) domains of TAR DNA binding protein 43 (TDP-43). These domains are crucial for recognizing GU-rich RNA sequences, and their dysfunction is linked to neurodegenerative diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia.

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11/14/2024
16154

Rethinking Irreversibly Sickled Cells in Sickle Cell Disease: New Biophysical Research Shifts our Understanding

Introduction
Sickle cell disease is a group of inherited blood disorders caused by a single point mutation in the hemoglobin gene. This gene mutation produces hemoglobin S (HbS), an abnormal hemoglobin variant that alters the shape and flexibility of red blood cells (RBCs).

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11/19/2024
16187

Exploring Ligand-Driven Allostery in a Muscle Protein

Our research uses molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to explore how perturbations such as small molecules, mutations, and post-translational modifications affect the structure and dynamics of muscle proteins. With atomic resolution, these detailed simulations can visualize how changes at the single-atom scale allosterically propagate through complex molecular systems.

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SAHELI MITRA:

A must read.

Coronavirus Structure, Vaccine and Therapy Development
Brennan Weaver:

Pretty nice read. I wish I could have written something about Pi. It's my 2nd favorite number value. Also, I don't think Pi is as mysterious as everyone thinks it is. It's just a number with a lot of personalities. And I do believe there is a last digit.

Pi Is Encoded in the Patterns of Life
Harel Weinstein:

Just perused the article "From Dynamics to Membrane Organization- Experimental Breakthroughs Occasion a ‘‘Modeling Manifesto’’ in the August 21 issue. While the Perspective is intriguing, the sheer Chutzpah of writing a "manifesto" about a field of modeling with lists of "demands" based on experiments that in many cases are more limited in scope or reality than any physics-based model, is quite astounding. Neither artificial membrane slabs, nor "live cells" imaged under conditions in which cells have a shabby life that doesn't last long (how much of this is due to the mistreatment of the membrane proteins?) share established behaviors that must be matched or else.... No experiment, computational or using imaging, is meant to mimic reality, only to probe it based on models and assumptions that can be falsified.

As to the role of the cytoskeleton, what does this tell us about the membrane itself, or the behavior of membrane proteins as individual molecules in their interplay with the membrane? And since this unrelated scaffold differs greatly between cells, what is the "correct matching standard"? All models are wrong, some (computational, or on the stage of a microscope) are useful, but in my opinion, self-critical, humble, and rigorous scientific reasoning are preferable to a manifesto in order to foster progress.

In Search of…Protein Interaction Partners
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