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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.  

The art of perusing the program guide.

The Biophysical Society Program Guide is a beast. Throughout the conference, we're all flipping through it page by page in the back of talks, trying to figure out what is the best use of our time. Some even skip sessions so they can concentrate on studying the program. I've yet to find my own perfect zen to navigate this guy, but as this is now my fifth time attending this conference, I thought a buzz-feed-esque top five ways to peruse your program guide, might be in order:

1. The classic: pen and paper.

A tried and true method popular among veterans and rookies alike. Part of the appeal of this method is its flexibility: boxes for people you know, stars for that demi-god of your field, smiley faces for clever titles, underlines for things you're interested in but are not at all related to anything you do, etc.

2. The techy: fancy PDF highlighting on your super cool tablet.

I tried this last year using an Evernote app on my tablet. I looked forward to having the flexibility of pen and paper, but without having to lug around this huge ridiculous book. Sadly, the PDF was so big it took a long time to load and a long time to save. One time I even lost all the amazing little pink bubbles I made around the Tuesday Posters I wanted to check out. Needless to say, I'm back to more traditional methods this year... It is possible that the BPS 360 App, has made this a new and amazing experience, but... I haven't tried it...

3. The PDF: mobile, simple.

Download the PDF. Look at it on your phone. Search for things on your phone. Write gmail drafts to yourself if you need to remember a poster number or room number.

4. The company line: Biophysical Society's web-based program guide.

I have been using it to search for specific things when I'm doing other things on my computer anyway, or if I am hankering for another dose of that awesome fake page turning sound.

5. The random walk: there's a program guide?

Follow your friends/labmates/PI's. If you lose them, wander aimlessly until you make new friends, happen into something interesting, or decide to check out the aquarium on your own.

--Sonya Hanson

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11/1/2024
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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
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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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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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