ROCKVILLE, MD – The Biophysical Society is pleased to announce that César A. Ramirez-Sarmiento PhD, at the Institute for Biological and Medical Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, has been selected as the winner of the Biophysical Journal Paper of the Year Award for 2020. This award recognizes the work of outstanding young investigators in biophysics. The winning paper is titled Differential Local Stability Governs the Metamorphic Fold-switch of Bacterial Virulence Factor RfaH. The paper was published in the January 7, 2020 issue of Biophysical Journal. Ramirez-Sarmiento will be honored at the Society’s 65th Annual Meeting, being held virtually, February 22–26, 2021, where he will present his work as part of the Best of Biophysical Journal Symposium.
Ramirez-Sarmiento, in collaboration with Pablo Galaz-Davison, José Alejandro Molina, Steve Silletti, Elizabeth A. Komives, Stefan H. Knauer, and Irina Artsimovitch, combined molecular dynamics and structural biology to unveil hotspots that differentially stabilize inactive and active states of the protein RfaH. Their findings provide insights that will guide the design of inhibitors blocking RfaH action.
“This award honors the work of young researchers publishing outstanding science in the Journal. The quality of these papers bodes well for the future of biophysics, and we are excited about all the discoveries that lie ahead for these scientists” said Jane Dyson, Editor in Chief, Biophysical Journal. “This paper exemplifies the strength of collaborative biophysics research, carried out on three continents and encompassing a broad array of experimental and computational techniques. We salute Dr. Ramirez-Sarmiento for his achievement in synthesizing these results into a compelling story.”
The Biophysical Journal is the Biophysical Society's flagship journal which was first published in 1960 and has been published in partnership with Cell Press since 2009. The journal spans a wide range of subjects and disciplines that provide quantitative insight into fundamental problems at the molecular, cellular, systems, and whole-organism levels.