Dylan Owen

King's College London

Editor, Cell Biophysics

Biophysical Journal

What are you currently working on that excites you?

We’re working on community-based resources for super-resolution, single-molecule imaging data. Collecting the data isn’t too complex, but it is time consuming. Moving from cell lines, which are quite uniform, to more physiologically relevant primary cells, which are much more diverse, requires greater data volumes. There is a lot of work going on now into faster imaging and automated imaging. We’re trying a different approach, similar to the concept behind distributed computing projects. If we can pool individuals’ data, develop ways to store it, share it, and compare it, we can build large diverse data sets. We can then explore the relationship between nanoscale protein organization across proteins, cell types, species, and individuals. This could make single-molecule imaging into an “-omics” approach akin to genomics or proteomics.

How do you stay on top of all the latest developments in your field?

That’s a really good question. Conference attendance has been very difficult the last few years, not just because of the pandemic but also with having two young kids at home now. I used to travel to as many conferences as I could but now I really have to prioritize. On top of that, searching for and reading papers is usually the first thing to get cut when other work starts to pile up. Finally, the rise of preprints has made it more difficult, too, as there are now large preprint servers to keep up with, in addition to traditional journals. Thus, I don’t have a good answer really. Lots of papers reach me through Twitter, which has been a great help but does tend to create bias in favor of people who take the time to advertise and promote their own work. Other than that, automatic journal table of contents emails from a select list of journals work well, as does word of mouth from members of my group and other colleagues.