Hello BPS-ers!
If there is one thing I have realized in the last couple of days, it is that BPS can be a very different experience as a postdoc. The first two days went by like a flash. Part of the reason being I am constantly in two minds about the sessions to attend. My past experience is in membrane-active peptides and intrinsically disordered proteins. My current work is on bioenergy and mitochondrial processes. It has been a tough call choosing between the two, and BPS is suddenly a bigger event for me than it has been in the past.
There has been another change in my approach. At past BPS meetings, I have spent significantly more time on methodology, which in my case is molecular dynamics simulation. Since my transition to being a postdoc, I find myself focusing a lot more on the science. For example, the proton-coupling bioenergetics symposiu on Sunday was a great learning experience.
The other scientific focus of our group is structure refinement from Cryo EM images. At the Systems Structural Systems Biology group at Arizona State University's Biodesing Institute, we extensively use Molecular Dynamics Flexible Fitting (MDFF) for Cryo EM structure refinement. We are also ready to publish our de novo protein folding tool from Cryo EM image that combines MDFF with two other protein folding tools, namely, Moedling Employing Limited Data (MELD) and MAINchain Model trAcing using Spanning Tree (MAINMAST). This BPS was an excellent opportunity for me to learn from and interact with the world experts of Cryo EM.
This was also the first time I had the opportunity to present a platform session at the BPS. I presented the results of my current work, where we used MD simulation to look at redox-induced conformational transitions in the respiratory complex I. It was a great experience, and the feedback from the audience was extremely helpful to plan the future of this research.
Last but not the least, I got to meet my former colleagues from graduate school, which was fantastic. Looking forward to seeing their posters on Tuesday and Wednesday!