Dear Colleagues,

We are excited to announce the Biophysical Society Thematic Meeting on Beyond Simple Models: The Consequences of Membrane Complexity in Living Systems.  This meeting will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, July 7-10, 2025.

Over the past 50 years, the biophysical community has developed a thorough understanding of the behavior of biomimetic membrane models. However, such models often fail to faithfully recapitulate the complexity of living membranes, which are composed of hundreds of different lipids and thousands of different proteins. Recent methodological and conceptual advances open the door to exploring the biophysics of complex membranes — in live cells, in model membranes, and in simulations. The goal of this meeting is to discuss these recent developments, with an emphasis on how lipid and protein complexity – and the emergent properties thereof - support the functions of  living membranes.  We also dedicate the meeting to a celebration of the life and science of Luis Bagatolli, with a major goal being the attendance of membrane researchers from South America.

The scientific program covers synthetic and living membrane models, lipidomic complexity, asymmetry, maintenance, engineering and function, as well as recent developments in methodologies, from computational modeling to state-of-the-art microscopy and spectroscopy.  Each session will feature invited speakers, contributed talks, and dedicated time for wide-ranging discussions with the audience and other speakers. Sessions are planned on Lipid sensing and homeostasis, engineering lipid complexity, computational modeling of biomembranes, protein regulation by lipids, membrane organization in vivo.

Visit the website for the program overview and list of speakers.  Please share this information with colleagues who may be interested in attending.  

Please note that the deadline to submit and abstract is March 17, 2025. Abstract submission is free and short talks will be selected from among submitted abstracts.

We look forward to your contributions and your enthusiastic participation in this stimulating meeting!

Program Co-Organizers

Ilya Levental, University of Virginia, USA
Edward Lyman, University of Delaware, USA
Dimitrios Stamou, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Juan Vanegas, Oregon State University, USA
Sarah Veatch, University of Michigan, USA