The Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) organizes a national conference held yearly in the United States to celebrate diversity and inclusion in science. SACNAS is also an invaluable venue to foster networking among young scholars of underrepresented ethnicity and gender. In addition, young attendees of SACNAS learn about different graduate schools as well as industrial, postdoctoral, and academic job opportunities. This year SACNAS took place at the Hawai’i Convention Center in Honolulu, from October 31 to November 2.
On Thursday, October 31, a scientific session sponsored by the Biophysical Society and organized by Silvia Cavagnero highlighted important biological questions that can be answered with powerful tools including “big magnets, radio waves, and lasers.” The audience as well as the speakers were highly diverse and included a variety of genders, races, and career stages. A brief general introduction explained the meaning of the word “biophysics,” a field that employs cross-disciplinary quantitative approaches to address compelling biological questions. The introduction also explained that the Biophysical Society, a worldwide institution devoted to bringing together biophysicists, serves as a catalyst for the dissemination of new ideas and tools in biology.
Kwaku Dayie, an Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of Maryland at College Park, then took the stage and underscored the compelling need to learn more about RNA structure and dynamics. Kwaku showed how powerful magnets and radio waves get us closer to understating fundamental aspects of RNA conformation. Progress in this area, in turn, fosters more rational approaches to the design of novel drugs targeting RNA. Cavagnero, a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, gave the next lecture, explaining how the low sensitivity of nuclear magnetic resonance can be overcome by low-concentration dynamic nuclear polarization, or LC-photo-CIDNP, which employs lasers or LEDs, superconducting magnets, and radio waves. The following lecture was by Ann McDermott, Professor of Chemistry at Columbia University, who explained the role of hetero-amyloids in necroptosis, a programmed form of inflammatory cell death. She also highlighted the power of solid state NMR, which led her and her group to determine the structure of hetero-amyloids formed by the RIPK1 and RIPK3 proteins. The last presentation was by Dave Jameson, Professor at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, who explained how laser light in the visible region may induce fluorescence emission. Dave captured the attention of the audience with a beautiful historical introduction to fluorescence spectroscopy and with a variety of demonstrations highlighting the visual appeal of fluorophores as well as the fact that many everyday liquids (e.g., tonic water), display intrinsic fluorescent properties.
In all, the SACNAS scientific session focusing on powerful lasers, radio waves, and magnets celebrated the amazing power of biophysics. The event reminded all of us how biophysics helps disclosing the secrets of nature as well as bringing people together in joyful collaborations regardless of ethnicity, social status, gender, and career stage.