Though the 2021 BPS Annual Meeting is virtual this year, the Student Research Achievement Award and Undergraduate Poster Award Competitions were held successfully online! The winners of both competitions are listed below, and will be honored at the Awards and 2021 Biophysical Society Lecture event on Friday, February 26 at 11:00 AM USA Eastern.
Student Research Achievement Award (SRAA)
Bioenergetics, Mitochondria & Metabolism
Jiemin Shen, Baylor College of Medicine, USA
MECHANISM OF ELECTRON TRANSPORT IN MAMMALIAN STEAROYL-COA DESATURASE 1
Bioengineering
Aakash Saha, University of California, Riverside, USA
COOPERATIVE DYNAMICS OF REC-NUC LOBES PRIME CAS12A FOR DNA PROCESSING
Trishit Banerjee, Tohoku University, Japan
ENGINEERING OF GENOME EDITING PROTEIN CAS9 THAT SLIDES ALONG DNA FASTER AND MIGHT ENABLE EFFICIENT TARGET SEARCH
Biological Fluorescence
Harikrushnan Balasubramanian, National University of Singapore
SRRF ‘N’ TIRF-FCS: NEW INSIGHTS INTO EGFR-CYTOSKELETON INTERACTIONS
David J. Schodt, University of New Mexico, USA
QUANTITATIVE MULTI-TARGET SUPER-RESOLUTION FOR ESTIMATING ANTIBODY LABELING EFFICIENCY
Biopolymers in vivo
Fathima T. Doole, University of Arizona, USA
ANTIMICROBIAL PEPTIDE-MEMBRANE INTERACTIONS: INSIGHTS FROM MOLECULAR SIMULATIONS
Channels Receptors & Transporters
Williams Miranda, University of Calgary, Canada
MOLECULAR MECHANISM OF HERG1 CHANNEL REGULATION BY CERAMIDES
Dheeraj Prakaash, University of Leeds, United Kingdom
MOLECULAR SIMULATIONS REVEAL THE DYNAMICS OF THE T-CELL RECEPTOR IN A T-CELL MODEL MEMBRANE
Matthew Rook, University of Rochester Medical Center, USA
ASIC ACTIVATION MECHANISMS DELINEATED THROUGH GENETIC CODE EXPANSION
Cryo-EM
Hamidreza Rahmani, Florida State University, USA
THE ATOMIC MODEL FOR MYOSIN II COILED-COIL SHOWS NOVEL OBSERVATIONS AND INSIGHTS INTO MUSCLE CONTRACTION
Intrinsically Disordered Proteins
Lavi S. Bigman, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
MICROTUBULE-BASED TRANSPORT IS CONTROLLED BY TUBULIN TAILS AND THEIR MODIFICATIONS
Melina Theoni Gyparaki, University of Pennsylvania, USA
TAU FORMS OLIGOMERIC COMPLEXES ON MICROTUBULES THAT ARE DISTINCT FROM PATHOLOGICAL OLIGOMERS IN DISEASE
Anindita Mahapatra, CSIR, India
MEMBRANE CHOLESTEROL REGULATES THE BINDING OF ALPHA-SYNUCLEIN TO SYNAPTIC VESICLES, AND ITS SUBSEQUENT FUNCTIONAL AND PATHOGENIC BEHAVIOR
Macromolecular Machines & Assembly
Sebastian Kenny, Purdue University, USA
THE TWO DEUBIQUITINATING ENZYMES FROM CHLAMYDIA TRACHOMATIS HAVE DISTINCT UBIQUITIN RECOGNITION PROPERTIES
Ines Martinez-Martin, Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research
CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC STRUCTURES OF TITIN IMMUNOGLOBULIN-LIKE I21 DOMAINS INVOLVED IN DILATED CARDIOMYOPATHY
Upasana L. Mallimadugula, Washington University in St. Louis, USA
A PARALLEL RATCHET-STROKE MECHANISM LEADS TO AN OPTIMUM FORCE FOR MOLECULAR MOTOR FUNCTION
Mechanobiology
Susanne Mesoy, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
THE ROLE OF THE OUTER LIPID-FACING HELIX IN CATIONIC PLGICS IS DEPENDENT ON THE CELLULAR CONTEXT
Amrutha Patkunarajah, University of New South Wales, Australia
DISRUPTING ELKIN1-DEPENDENT MECHANOELECTRICAL TRANSDUCTION MODULATES CELL-CELL INTERACTIONS IN ORGANOTYPIC TUMOUR SPHEROIDS
Membrane Structure & Function
Hammad Ali Faizi, Northwestern University, USA
SHAPE FLUCTUATIONS OF GIANT UNILAMELLAR VESICLES AND ITS APPLICATIONS TO STUDY ELECTRIFIED MEMBRANES AND MEMBRANE VISCOSITY
Valeria Zoni, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
SEIPIN ACCUMULATES AND TRAPS DIACYLGLYCEROLS AND TRYGLYCERIDES IN ITS RING-LIKE STRUCTURE
Chantelle Leveille, University of Washington, USA
THE ROLE OF GROWTH TEMPERATURE AND LIPID COMPOSITION IN PHASE SEPARATION OF YEAST VACUOLE MEMBRANES
Membrane Transport
Mark MacRae, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, USA
STRUCTURE OF THE BACTERIAL LIPID ABC TRANSPORTER MLAFEDB REVEALS SUBSTRATE BOUND
Nandan Haloi, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
ROLE OF THE INTERNAL LOOPS IN GATING OF OUTER MEMBRANE PORINS
Victoria C. Young, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, USA
DISPLACEMENT OF THE NA+/K+-PUMP'S TRANSMEMBRANE DOMAINS DEMONSTRATE CONSERVED CONFORMATIONAL CHANGES IN P-TYPE 2 ATPASES
Motility & Cytoskeleton
Lila Nehring, University of California, San Francisco, USA
OPPOSING MOTORS PROVIDE MECHANICAL AND FUNCTIONAL ROBUSTNESS IN THE MAMMALIAN SPINDLE
Multiscale Genome Organization
Fatema Zahra Rashid, Leiden University, the Netherlands
REGULATION OF PROVWX TRANSCRIPTION BY LOCAL CHROMATIN REMODELLING
Nanoscale Approaches to Biology
Julia R. Migliore, University of North Texas, USA
USING ENZYME-LINKED MARKERS WITH CHROMOGENIC SUBSTRATES IN EXPANSION MICROSCOPY
Jugal Saharia, Southern Methodist University, USA
CHEMICALLY-TUNED SOLID-STATE NANOPORES FOR SINGLE-MOLECULE BIOPHYSICS
Weiqing Xu, Arizona State University, USA
A BAYESIAN NONPARAMETRIC APPROACH TO LEARNING MOLECULAR SPECIES AND DIFFUSION DYNAMICS BASED ON PHOTON ARRIVAL DATA
Physical Cell Biology
Molly Mollica, University of Washington, USA
MEASURING SINGLE-CELL PLATELET FORCES VIA MICROCONTACT-PRINTED, REFERENCE-FREE TRACTION FORCE MICROSCOPY REVEALS RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CELL SHAPE, F-ACTIN LOCALIZATION, AND FORCE
Yanitza Trosel, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada
DIFFUSION NMR AND RHEOLOGY STUDY OF A MODEL POLYMER AND A DISORDERED PROTEIN IN THE PRESENCE OF BACTERIAL CELL LYSATE CROWDERS
Undergraduate Poster Award
Youna J. Choi, Amherst College, USA
DNA FOLDING BY THE SARS-COV-2 NUCLEOCAPSID PROTEIN
Shawn H. Lin, Wesleyan University, USA
ELUCIDATION OF INTERACTIONS BETWEEN INTEGRATION HOST FACTOR AND A DNA FOUR-WAY JUNCTION
Lydia Good, Georgetown University, USA
STATISTICAL AND BIOPHYSICAL ANALYSIS OF FORCE-PULLING OPTICAL TWEEZERS DATA IN COMPLEX PROTEIN SYSTEMS
Daria Wonderlick, University of Oregon, USA
CHARACTERIZATION OF ENSEMBLE EPISTASIS IN THE ADENINE RIBOSWITCH
David Tang, University of Chicago, USA
THE TRANSITION PATHWAY BETWEEN THE CLOSED AND OPEN STATES OF INSULIN DEGRADING ENZYME SHOWS TWO DISTINCT MOTIONS: ROTATION AROUND A HINGE AND GRINDING BETWEEN TWO DOMAINS
Adith Srivatsa, University of California, Davis, USA
MOLECULAR DYNAMIC SIMULATIONS SUGGEST NOVEL PIP2 BINDING SITES FOR SK2 CHANNEL REGULATION