Biophysical Society Newsletter July 2013

1. Newsletter
Contents
Biophysical Society
Deadlines
juLY 2013
Call for 2015 Thematic
Meeting Proposals
Mechanobiology
of Proteins
and Cells
September 29–
October 3, 2013
Salisbury Cove, Maine
July 8, 2013
Early Registration
2015 Thematic
Meeting Proposals
July 11, 2013
Proposal Submission
Wiki-Edit Contest
July 15, 2013
Article Submission
58th
Annual
Meeting
February 15–19, 2014
San Francisco, California
Biophysicist in Profile
2
Public Affairs 4
Members in the News 5
Subgroups 5
Obituary 5
2014 Annual Meeting 6
Biophysical Journal 8
Grants and Opps 9
2013 Summer Course 10
Student Spotlight 11
Upcoming Events 12
save the date
Proposal Deadline: July 11, 2013
Each year the Biophysical Society sponsors
focused-topic meetings for 150–300 attendees
organized by Society members. The Society
provides partial financial support of approxi-
mately $10,000 for these meetings, in addi-
tion to meeting management, including all
web and onsite components.
The Society has sponsored these thematic meet-
ings, which have been held in various locations
around the world, since 2010. These meetings
are unique and exciting because they bring
together researchers who do not otherwise
attend the same events, bringing different
perspectives to address common problems.
The Society is now calling for proposals for
2015 thematic meetings. Complete submis-
sions will be considered by the Thematic
Meetings Committee and, pending review,
organizers will be contacted for additional
information. The Committee’s final recom-
mendations will be submitted to the Society’s
Council for approval in November.
For criteria, submission requirements, and a
complete listing of past and future meetings,
visit http://www.biophysics.org/Meetings/
ThematicMeetings/tabid/2256/Default.aspx.
Proposals must be submitted through the
onsite submission site at http://www.sur-
veymonkey.com/s/2015ThematicProposals for
consideration.
The deadline for submission of proposals for
2015 thematic meetings is July 11, 2013.
Video Contest Winner
Congratulations to Andy Wowor, Colorado
College, for winning this year’s Biophysics-
The Everyday video contest.
Wowor won a cash prize of $500 and his video
will be featured at the 58th
Annual Meeting
in San Francisco, California, as well as on the
Biophysical Society’s
YouTube channel.
To view the winning
video, Protein Folding
Dance, visit http://www.youtube.com/playlist?
list=PLcpQBGVPTN5Jh54XNc6u7WFkEf7feGvFj.

2. Biophysical Society Newsletter2 juLY 2013
Biophysicist in Profile
Walter Perkins
“Biophysics is the crossroads
where all the interesting
science intersects…
”– Walter Perkins
Biophysical Society
Officers
President
Francisco Bezanilla
President-Elect
Dorothy Beckett
Past-President
Jane Richardson
Secretary
Lukas Tamm
Treasurer
Paul Axelsen
Council
Karen Fleming
Taekjip Ha
Amy Harkins
Samantha Harris
Peter Hinterdorfer
Juliette Lecomte
Amy Lee
Marcia Levitus
Marjorie Longo
Merritt Maduke
Daniel Minor, Jr.
Jeanne Nerbonne
Gail Robertson
Claudia Veigel
Antoine van Oijen
Bonnie Wallace
David Yue
Biophysical Journal
Leslie Loew
Editor-in-Chief
Society Office
Ro Kampman
Executive Officer
Newsletter
Alisha Yocum
Monika Zakrzewska
Production
Bernadette Chepega
Profile
Ellen Weiss
Public Affairs
The Biophysical Society Newsletter
(ISSN 0006-3495) is published
twelve times per year, January-
December, by the Biophysical
Society, 11400 Rockville Pike, Suite
800, Rockville, Maryland 20852.
Distributed to USA members
and other countries at no cost.
Canadian GST No. 898477062.
Postmaster: Send address changes
to Biophysical Society, 11400
Rockville Pike, Suite 800, Rockville,
MD 20852. Copyright © 2013 by
the Biophysical Society. Printed in
the United States of America.
All rights reserved.
Walter Perkins often jokes that his career—research and development of anti-
cancer agents and treatment for pulmonary conditions—is his way of “making
amends for [his] involvement in perpetuating the use of tobacco.” Raised on
a Virginia tobacco farm, Perkins recalls taking his grandmother’s alarm clock
apart to see the mechanisms, converting an old barn into a chemistry lab—not
a good location when using an open flame—and serving as the president of his
high school’s Future Farmers of America chapter. He credits his father, a farmer
and a self-taught musician, for teaching him patience and a dogged work ethic
that has carried over from the field to the lab.
After earning his BA in chemistry, Perkins went on to PhD studies in biophysi-
cal chemistry, both at the University of Virginia (UVA). With adviser David
Cafiso, Perkins worked to explain the differences in proton/hydroxyl permeability
across different model membrane systems and to evaluate the contribution of the
membrane’s interfacial dipole field in proton/hydroxyl (H+
/OH-
) conduction. “I
primarily credit Dave for sparking my interests and guiding me into the world of
lipid assembly and interactions,” said Perkins. “Dave started
at UVA during my senior undergraduate year. I took
his physical chemistry class, and then became his first
PhD student.” Perkins’ experiences in Cafiso’s lab learn-
ing about membrane properties and liposome formation
would serve him extremely well in the next leg of his career.
Perkins knew he wanted to enter the pharmaceutical
industry after his postdoc, but did not realize that there were industrial postdocs
available until attending the Biophysical Society Annual Meeting in 1987, where
he pursued both academic and industrial postdocs. “Job searching was con-
tained primarily at meetings in the early days,” he said. “Today, the Society’s
website to connect job seekers and employers is very impressive; back in
1987, I posted my resume and was approached by a scientist from The Lipo-
some Company (TLC).” After weighing the pros and cons of academia versus
industry, he decided to head to TLC, and as Perkins put it, “the rest is history.”
Andrew Janoff was the head of Liposome Research at TLC when Perkins started.
“Walter was our first postdoctoral scientist,” said Janoff, “and he went on to be-
come one of the most important and productive members of the group.” Describ-
ing his time at TLC as “a lipid biophysicist’s dream,” Perkins reminisced, “they
had literally every technique and instrument that one could imagine, except x-ray
diffraction, which we were able to do through collaboration with Dr. Sol Gruner.”
In those early days of biotechnology research, scientists at small companies had
the flexibility to do extensive mechanistic work and off-product research, as long
as it generally increased the targeted knowledge base.
With this flexibility, Perkins’ time at TLC was extremely productive. Work-
ing on a project to determine why multilamellar liposomes made from powder
exclude solute, Perkins realized and proved that the captured volumes generally

3. Biophysical Society Newsletter 3juLY 2013
reported for most multilamellar vesicles had been
underestimated by a factor of two. “Many of his
observations have been codified into standard
operating procedures necessary in all facilities that
produce liposomes commercially,” explained
Janoff. Perkins’ model that amphotericin and
phospholipid were combining in a one-to-one
ratio to form unique complexes that assembled to
form membranes was a key factor in the devel-
opment of the drug ABELCET®, which treats
life-threatening systemic fungal infections, and is
still on the market today. His contributions were
also essential to the development and regulatory
approval of the drug MYOCET®, as well as many
other Investigational New Drug applications
for the company. “Walter is the embodiment of
Szent-Gyorgi’s ideal biophysicist,” said Janoff.
“He sees what everybody else has seen, and thinks
what nobody else has thought.”
Over the years, his career has covered many topics.
“I think of myself as a liposomologist,” Perkins
explained, “but I really have been a biophysics
jack-of-all-trades, and master of none.” Focusing
on drug delivery using liposomes and lipid-based
complexes, he has employed techniques from elec-
tron paramagnetic resonance to circular dichroism
spectroscopy and more. “One of the great things
about Walter was that if you had a reasonable
idea, he would let you pursue it,” said Don Hirsch,
who worked with Perkins at TLC. “Collabora-
tion was encouraged and there was a sense that
we would sink or swim together.”
Today, his specialization lies at the intersection of
liposome/nanoparticle technology and inhalation
delivery. As the chief technology officer at Insmed
Incorporated, a public biotech-pharmaceutical
company, Perkins heads the research team, work-
ing to develop pharmaceutical therapies for rare
diseases where there is high unmet medical need.
His current work includes an inhaled liposomal
amikacin drug, currently in a Phase 3 clinical
trial and a Phase 2 clinical trial. “If it is approved,
it will be used to treat Pseudomonas aeruginosa
lung infections in cystic fibrosis patients, as well as
patients with nontuberculous mycobacteria lung
infections,” Perkins explained. This treatment,
as well as others that he is working on, focus on
inhalation as a route of administration, expand-
ing his knowledge base to include a “reasonable
understanding of aerosol delivery, aerodynamics,
and airway deposition.”
Through the years, his biggest challenges
have come not from the science, but from the
supporting framework. Financial support, even
in the pharmaceutical industry, is not unlim-
ited. Perkins worked at a small venture capital
funded company for several years, where pursu-
ing research questions was limited to those that
had potential to advance drug candidates down
the pharmaceutical development path.
Time management is also a challenge for Per-
kins. With career advancement came additional
administrative responsibilities, limiting his time
even further. He describes the pharmaceuti-
cal industry as seeming on occasion akin to an
old-west cattle drive, saying, “You gather the
herd, head toward your destination and start
pushing forward; if you discover new geography
or a beautiful landscape, you make note of it but
keep pushing forward.” Time to investigate those
beautiful landscapes—or dangling questions
in research projects—is limited, “and often you
aren’t able to return to explore further.”
Despite these limitations, Perkins finds his
work extremely rewarding. Solving the mystery
of what appeared to be a new phase transition in
saturated chain phospholipids was a person-
ally satisfying puzzle to solve. Additionally, the
improvement in patient’s lives brought about
by new therapies, and the interesting science
employed to generate the therapies, keeps him
pushing forward. “I really love what I do,” Perkins
confessed. “I’d like to keep doing it until I can’t,
even expanding my group and doing more
mechanistic work into basic interactions.”
Perkins would like to examine more closely the
role of epithelial cell responses to certain media-
tors affecting changes in the pulmonary vascula-
ture, and to watch and wait in awe as the endless
possibilities of biophysics move the field forward.
“In my career, I have seen computers move from
simple data crunchers to indispensable tools,” said
Perkins. “The possibilities 25 years from now are
hard to imagine.”
Perkins with some of his research
colleagues (left to right):
Franziska Graf, Walter Perkins,
Pallavi Venugopal, and Jane Ong.

4. Biophysical Society Newsletter4 juLY 2013
Public Affairs
House Showdown over NSF
Grants and Reauthorization
In recent months, the National Science Founda-
tion (NSF) has found itself under the microscope
of Chairman of the House Science and Technology
Committee Lamar Smith (R-TX). In April, draft
legislation (The High Quality Research Act) to reau-
thorize the NSF was leaked, including the require-
ment that the NSF must certify in writing that each
grant it awards is in the economic or national security
interest of the country. The leaking of the legislation
was followed by an April 25 letter from Smith to Act-
ing NSF Director Cora Marrett, asking for the notes
from peer review and from the program officers for
five specific grants that Smith thought might not be
in the interest of US taxpayers.
The proposed legislation and the inquiry into the
grants have alarmed the science community about
Chairman Smith’s intent. The concern is that the
inquiry and the legislation will lead to the politi-
cization of science and will infringe on the peer
review system that has worked well for decades
and made the US the model for other countries.
There is also a secondary concern that releasing the
comments to the Science Committee will breach
the confidentiality the reviewers assumed they had
when they made the comments, and will deter
scientists from acting as reviewers in the future.
According to an interview with a House Science
and Technology committee aide that appeared on
the AAAS blog, ScienceInsider, on May 9, Chair-
man Smith contends that the problem is not the
scientific review, but whether those projects are
vetted by NSF to see if they are an appropriate use
of taxpayers’ money. Ranking member of the Sci-
ence Committee Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) has
publicly renounced Smith’s request.
The Biophysical Society signed a community-wide
letter to Smith opposing his request to NSF. Past
NSF Directors, dating back to 1985, also sent the
chairman a letter asking him to rescind his request,
as did several past assistant directors.
In a surprising development, Marrett responded to
Chairman Smith in May, saying that she was not
going to divulge the information he requested. Mar-
rett said that she would be happy to discuss the peer
review process, how grants are selected, and how the
five in question in are in line with the NSF’s mission.
NDD United Releases Seques-
tration Video, Welcomes
Stories on Its Impact
NDD United, a national coalition of 3,200
organizations working to stop budget cuts to
core government programs considered discre-
tionary spending, released an educational video
on sequestration and its impact on non-defense
discretionary programs in late May. The video is
an effort to educate policymakers and the public
about the impacts sequestration cuts are having
on a wide variety of programs, including research,
public health, education, public safety, housing,
social services, infrastructure, and environmental
protection. You can view the video at http://www.
nddunited.org.
In addition, the coalition, of which the Biophysi-
cal Society is a member, is asking individuals to
share how sequestration is affecting them. You
can share you story at http://www.nddunited.org/
#!contact/ch8q.
Bringing NSF research to
Congress
The Biophysical Society co-sponsored the 19th
Annual Coalition for National Science Funding
(CNSF) Exhibition Reception held on Capitol
Hill on May 7. Over 285 Congressional staff,
including 10 members of Congress, attended the
event, which highlighted NSF-funded research
taking place across the country. The members
of Congress who attended were Congressmen
Howard Coble (R-NC), Chaka Fattah (D-PA), Bill
Foster (D-IL), Rush Holt (D-NJ), Eddie Bernice
Johnson (D-TX), Walter Jones (R-NC), Sheila Jackson
Lee (D_TX), Jerry McNerney (D-CA), David Price
(D-NC), and Paul Tonko (D-NY).

5. Biophysical Society Newsletter 5juLY 2013
Subgroups
BIV
2014 Annual Meeting
The Biopolymers in Vivo subgroup is continu-
ing to work on plans for the 2014 Annual
Meeting in San Francisco, California. The
full speaker lineup for our symposium will
be posted online soon!
Once again, please encourage your students to
participate in the Student Research Achievement
Award (SRAA) poster competition and your
postdoctoral fellows to submit abstracts for next
year’s Annual Meeting on topics that might be
chosen for talks at the BIV symposium.
BIV Logo Contest Reminder
The BIV Logo Contest is looking for entries!
See the June newsletter for details. Submit your
entries to me, at: gierasch@biochem.umass.edu.
—Lila Gierasch, Chair, BIV subgroup
Members in the News
Eve Marder, Brandeis Univer-
sity and Society member since
1995, has been awarded the
George A. Miller Award from
the Cognitive Neuroscience
Society.
Arthur L. Horwich, Yale
University and Society mem-
ber since 2001, received the
Herbert Tabor Research Award
from the American Society for
Biochemistry and Molecular
Biology (ASBMB).
Obituary
Douglas Junge
Douglas Junge, professor of Oral Biology and
Physiology at UCLA passed away on May 5 after
a long illness. Doug was a beloved educator and
mentor who researched ion channels, membrane
excitability, and sensory coding, among other
topics. A graduate of Cal Tech, Doug completed
graduate work with G.P. Moore at UCLA and
postdoctoral training with S. Hagiwara. He will
forever be remembered by his many students,
colleagues, and friends.
Doug mentored a number of PhD students, in-
cluding Dick Horn, Jeff Miller, Malcolm Brodwick,
Les Satin, and Mark Schwartz. Doug also wrote a
classic text on membrane biophysics, Nerve and
Muscle Excitation.
—Leslie Satin, University of Michigan
Wiki-Edit Contest
Expert in your area? Share that
knowledge with the world!
The Biophysical Society
is sponsoring a Wiki-
Edit Contest with the
aim of improving
Wikipedia content
on biophysical topics.
Choose a topic and cre-
ate or edit an article by July 15. Six winners
will receive a $100 cash prize, membership,
and registration for 2014 BPS meeting in
San Francisco, a “Barnstar” award from
WikiProject Biophysics, and a dinner with
other BPS wikipedians at the Annual Meet-
ing. Visit www.biophysics.org and click
“Awards/Opportunities” then “Society
Contests.”
@

6. Biophysical Society Newsletter6 juLY 2013
2014 Annual Meeting Symposia
Force Sensing in Muscle
Mathias Gautel, King’s College London,
United Kingdom, and Gabriella Piazzesi,
University of Florence, Italy, Co-Chairs
Kenneth Campbell, University of Kentucky
Michael Regnier, University of Washington
Myosin Motors in Vitro and in Cells
Michelle Peckham, University of Leeds,
United Kingdom, and Margaret Titus,
University of Minnesota, Co-Chairs
Laurent Blanchoin, University of Grenoble, France
Jan Faix, Hannover Medical School, Germany
Regulation of Cytoskeletal Motors
Marileen Dogterom, AMOLF, The Netherlands,
and Kazuhiro Oiwa, National Institute of Infor-
mation and Communications Technology, Japan,
Co-Chairs
Yale Goldman, University of Pennsylvania
Stanley Burgess, University of Leeds, United
Kingdom
Membrane Transport in Fatty Acid
Synthesis and Obesity
Da-Neng Wang, New York University School
of Medicine, and Ana Pajor, University of
California, San Diego, Co-Chairs
Stephen Helfand, Brown University
Gerald Shulman, Yale University
Molecular Basis of Voltage Dependence
Eduardo Perozo, University of Chicago,
and Sudha Chakrapani, Case Western
Reserve University, Co-Chairs
Nieng Yan, Tsinghua University, China
Yasushi Okamura, Osaka University, Japan
Baron Chanda, University of Wisconsin–
Madison
Mechanosensing in Eukaryotes
Jeffrey Holt, Harvard University Boston
Children’s Hospital, and Valeria Vasquez,
Stanford University, Co-Chairs
Elizabeth Haswell, Washington University
in St. Louis
Miriam Goodman, Stanford University
Ardem Patapoutiam, Scripps Research Institute
Molecular Basis for Regulation of Ca2+
Channels
Stephen Long, Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center, and Amy Lee, University
of Iowa, Co-Chairs
Annette Dolphin, University College London,
United Kingdom
Heping Peace Cheng, Peking University, China
Jörg Striessnig, University of Innsbruck, Austria
Structures of Membrane Fusion
Anne Ulrich, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology,
Germany, and David Weliky, Michigan State
University, Co-Chairs
Peter Kasson, University of Virginia
Lukas Tamm, University of Virginia
Biophysics of Genetic Switches
Laura Finzi, Emory University, and Ido Golding,
Baylor College of Medicine, Co-Chairs
Lucille Shapiro, Stanford University
Keith Shearwin, University of Adelaide, Australia
RNA Assemblies and DNA Origami
Christina Smolke, Stanford University, and
Andrew Turberfield, University of Oxford,
United Kingdom, Co-Chairs
Luc Jaeger, University of California, Santa Cruz
Tim Liedl, Ludwig Maximilian University of
Munich, Germany
The diverse 2014
Annual Meeting program
emphasizes scientific
breakthroughs in both
long-standing research
areas of the Biophysical
Society and in new
cutting-edge areas,
including methodologies,
advances in complex
systems, biophysics
in industry, and
personalized medicine.
In addition, we are
excited to commemorate
the UN International
Year of Crystallography
with a symposium
highlighting recent
developments and
achievements in x-ray
crystallography.
–Bob Nakamoto,
Program Chair
58th
Annual Meeting
February 15–19, 2014 | San Francisco, California

7. Biophysical Society Newsletter 7juLY 2013
B r i dg i n g t h e Sc i e n c e s t o Expl o r e B i o l o g y
Structural Dynamics of Molecular Machines
Julio Fernandez, Columbia University, and Yasmine
Meroz, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, Co-Chairs
Johan Elf, Uppsala University, Sweden
Robert Sauer, MIT
Applications of Quantum Mechanics
to Biophysical Problems
Qiang Cui, University of Wisconsin–Madison,
and Sharon Hammes-Schiffer, University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign, Co-Chairs
Kenneth Merz, University of Florida
Ursula Rothlisberger, Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology, Switzerland
Celebrating 100 Years of Crystallography:
X-Rays Are Photons Too
Jane Richardson, Duke University, and Gregory
Petsko, Brandeis University, Co-Chairs
John Spence, Arizona State University
William Weiss, Stanford University
Thomas Terwilliger, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Jamie Cate, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Biophysics of Cell Division and Spatial
Relationships
Susan Biggins, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research
Center, andWallace Marshall, University of
California, San Francisco, Co-Chairs
Daniel Fletcher, University of California, Berkeley
Matthieu Piel, Curie Institute, France
Force Generation in Cell and Tissue Networks
Michael Sheetz, Columbia University, and Clare
Waterman, NHLBI, Co-Chairs
Alexander Bershadsky, Weizmann Institute of
Science, Israel
Frank Jülicher, Max Planck Institute for the
Physics of Complex Systems, Germany
Cellular Stress, Protein Folding, and Disease
Conner Sandefur, University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, and Judy Kim, University of
California, San Diego, Co-Chairs
Nikolay Dokholyan, University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill
Richard Morimoto, Northwestern University
Santiago Schnell, University of Michigan
Biophysics of Personalized Medicine
Donald Engelman, Yale University, and Kathleen
Giacomini, University of California, San Francisco,
Co-Chairs
Charles Cantor, Boston University
Atul Butte, Stanford University
Stochasticity in Cellular Processes
Nathalie Questembert-Balaban, Hebrew University
of Jerusalem, Israel, and Rachel Kuske, University
of British Columbia, Canada, Co-Chairs
Stanislas Leibler, Rockefeller University
Elizabeth Read, University of California, Irvine
Liquid Protein Assemblies in Spatial Organiza-
tion and Ultrasensitive Signaling in Cells
Julie D. Forman-Kay, Hospital for Sick Children,
Canada, and Tanja Mittag, St. Jude Children’s
Research Hospital, Co-Chairs
Edward A. Lemke, European Molecular Biology
Laboratory, Germany
Michael K. Rosen, University of Texas Southwestern
Medical Center
Régis Pomès, Hospital for Sick Children, Canada
Molecular Self-Assembly:
from in Vitro to Cellular Systems
Roy Bar-Ziv, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel,
and Suzanne Gaudet, Harvard University, Co-Chairs
David Savage, University of California, Berkeley
Todd Yeates, University of California, Los Angeles
Biophysics in Industry:
Putting Evolution in Practice
Kenneth Dill, Stony Brook University,
and Timothy Gardner, Amyris, Inc., Co-Chairs
Christopher Voigt, MIT
Peter Licari, Solazyme, Inc.

8. Biophysical Society Newsletter8 juLY 2013
New Editorial Board
Members Named
On July 1, Biophysical Journal added two
new Associate Editors. Dave Piston, Vander-
bilit University, will replace outgoing Michael
Edidin, Johns Hopkins University, as Associ-
ate Editor of the Cell Biophysics section, and
E. Michael Ostap, University of Pennsylvania,
will take over the Molecular Machines, Mo-
tors, and Nanoscale Biophysics section from
outgoing Associate Editor Yale Goldman, Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania.
In addition, 25 new Editors will also begin
three-year terms under the various sections.
They are:
Section I: Proteins and Nucleic Acids
Dan Raleigh, Stony Brook University
Jason Kahn, University of Maryland
David Eliezer, Weill Cornell Medical College
Jim Cole, University of Connecticut
Section II: Channels and Transporters
Mirriam Goodman, Stanford University
Section III: Cell Biophysics
Jochen Guck, Cambridge University,
United Kingdom
Katharina Gaus, University of New South
Wales, Australia
David Piston E. Michael Ostap
Klaus Hahn, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Ruth Baker, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Section IV: Membranes
Tobias Baumgart, University of Pennsylvania
Arne Gericke, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Section V: Systems Biophysics
Ewa Paluch, Max Planck Institute, Germany
James Keener, University of Utah
Alan Grodzinsky, MIT
Section VI: Molecular Machines, Motors,
and Nanoscale Biophysics
Stefan Diez, Max Planck Institute, Germany
Ram Dixit, Washington University
Margaret Gardel, University of Chicago
Antoine vanOijen,Groningen University,The Netherlands
Hiroyuki Noji, University of Tokyo, Japan
Kazuhiro Oiwa, National Institute of Information
and Communications Technology, Kobe, Japan
David Sept, University of Michigan
Matthew Tyska, Vanderbilt University
Laurent Blanchoin, CEA Grenoble, France
David Warshaw, University of Vermont
Bernhard Brenner,Hannover Medical School, Germany
Know the Editors
Each month we feature a Biophysical Journal (BJ)
editor and highlight a BJ section.
E. Michael Ostap (pictured above), University of
Pennsylvania, Associate Editor of the Molecular
Machines, Motors, and Nanoscale Biophysics
Q: What is your area of research?
My laboratory studies the molecular mechanisms of cell
motility. We are using a combination of biophysical,
biochemical, and cell biological techniques to deter-
mine how cytoskeletal motors carry-out their cellular
functions. Over the past few years, much of our work
has focused on the use of single-molecule biophysi-
cal techniques to explore the relationship between
Biophysical Journal Editor’s Corner
NEW BJ
Virtual Issue
Molecular Motors
and Cytoskeleton
Read the best recent
BJ papers in this
area by going to
www.biophysj.org.

9. Biophysical Society Newsletter 9juLY 2013
mechanical load and biochemical kinetics of myosin
motors. Our more recent work has also explored the
interaction of motor proteins with lipid membranes
and investigated the activity of motors in living cells.
Q: As Associate Editor of the “Molecular
Machines, Motors, and Nanoscale Biophysics”
section, can you tell us what type of papers
BJ is looking for in that area?
We are eager to publish original biophysical
studies related to:
• Mechanisms and regulation of molecular motors
and machines (e.g., cytoskeletal motors, helicases,
polymerases, AAA proteins, etc.);
• Dynamics, regulation, and mechanics of cytoskel-
etal filaments;
• Sensing of forces and displacements in biological
systems (mechano-biology);
• The role of molecular machines and motors in
complex assemblies and emergent behaviors of
these assemblies;
• Quantitative models of molecular machines that
shed light on mechanisms or suggest new tests of
hypotheses;
• Use of molecular motors, filaments, and other
biological macromolecules in engineered man-
made devices; and
• Newtechniques and analysis methods innanobiology.
The Editorial Board (EB) for this section has un-
dergone a substantial turnover as of July 1, and its
membership continues to represent leaders in the
biophysical areas articulated above. Notably, most
EB members are cross-disciplinary researchers that
effectively integrate fundamental biophysical studies
with the fields of biochemistry, cell biology, and
physiology.
Q: Why did you take on the role of
Associate Editor?
I consider the Biophysical Journal the most
important publication in the field. I served for
two terms on the Editorial Board, and I highly
value the thorough, thoughtful, and respectful
review process that has been characteristic of the
Journal. This is an exciting time for biophysics, as
new technologies are bringing biophysical measure-
ments to more areas of biology and impacting knowl-
edge with healthcare relevance. I look forward to
working with the Biophysical Journal and its authors
to publish the best of these biophysical studies.
9
Grants and Opportunities
Sunnybrook Prize
Objective: To recognize excellence in
undergraduate research.
Who May Apply: Students should be in their
third or fourth year of study at a Canadian
university by fall 2013 and have completed
a research project with a focus on biomedical
research.
Submission Deadline: September 12, 2013
Website: http://sunnybrook.ca/research/
content/?page=sri-ed-undergrad-prize
Division of Molecular and Cellular
Biosciences: Investigator-initiated
research projects
Objective: Seeking projects that use theory,
methods, and technologies from physical sci-
ences, mathematics, computational sciences,
and engineering to address major biological
questions.
Who May Apply: Universities and colleges
in the United States and non-profit, non-
academic institutions.
Submission Deadline: November 15, 2013
Website: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2013/
nsf13510/nsf13510.htm#elig

10. Biophysical Society Newsletter10 juLY 2013
2013 Biophysics Summer Course Begins
The sixth year of the NIGMS-funded Biophys-
ical Society Summer Course: Case Studies in the
Physics of Life kicked off on May 14.
Ten students from diverse academic, cultural,
and geographic backgrounds are spending their
summer at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill (UNC) studying biophysics. The
11-week course gives students the chance to
complete their own biophysics-related research
project in the lab with their self-selected men-
tors. In addition to lab work, students attend
lectures and seminars given by UNC faculty
and visiting speakers from biophysics programs
around the country.
The full summer schedule, prepared by Course
co-directors and Society members Mike Jarstfer
and Barry Lentz, also includes professional
development classes, a field trip to the beach,
and a visit to a lab at Duke University. Bradley
Falk, Sarah Marks, and Adrienne Synder, all
graduate students at UNC, are acting as teach-
ing assistants for the Course, hosting recitation
sessions and giving quizzes.
Augustine Ajuogu
Northwest University
Biology Major
Quenton Bubb
Johns Hopkins
University
Biophysics Major
Daniel Cantu
Texas AM,
Corpus Christi
Biochemistry and
Molecular Biology
Major
Shawn Helmueller
University of
Minnesota, Duluth
Chemistry and
Biochemistry Major
Mariel Jimenez
University of Puerto
Rico, Rio Piedras
Physics Major
Joseph Kousouros
Hunter College
Biology and
Chemistry Major
Joshua Mannheimer
Colorado State
University
Biomedical Engineering
Major
Joseph Park
University of Florida
Mathematics and
Physics Major
Jaime Ramirez
Rio Hondo College
Physics Major
Johnnie Wright
Indiana University-
Purdue University
Indianapolis
Biophysics Major
Summer Course 2013 Students

11. Biophysical Society Newsletter 11juLY 2013
Student Spotlight
Leslie Conway
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Jennifer Ross Lab
Suggest a
Student or
Postdoc to
Spotlight
Do you have a
spotlight-worthy
student or postdoc
in your lab? Send
his/her name to
society@biophysics.org.
Q: What initially attracted you to biophysics?
I have always loved microscopy because of its
power to visualize cells and structures within
cells. However, the ability to visualize single pro-
tein molecules and to study the properties of
these individual proteins is still absolutely amazing
to me, and what led me to biophysics.
Q: What specific areas are you studying?
I am studying the cytoskeleton, specifically
microtubules and the motor protein, kinesin-1.
Q: What is your current research project?
My current research project involves understand-
ing how kinesin-1 functions to efficiently transport
cargos on complex microtubule tracks.
Q: What do you hope to do after graduation?
After graduation, I ultimately hope to work as a
research scientist in industry.
Q: If you could give one piece of advice to
someone just starting their undergraduate
science career, what would it be?
Join a lab where you can be exposed to research
as soon as possible. This experience will not only
prepare you for a future in science, but will help
you get more out of your coursework as you will
be better able to realize the direct implications of
what you are learning in class.
Q: Why did you join the Biophysical Society?
I joined the Biophysical Society because I saw the
Annual Meeting as a great avenue to present my
research and receive valuable feedback from others
in the field.
Q: What (or who) inspires you scientifically?
I am inspired by the fact that science is everywhere.
Gaining a detailed understanding of the mecha-
nisms behind what we see in nature and how cells
carry out their specific functions fascinates me.
Jennifer Ross, Leslie’s PI says:
It was my pleasure to nominate Leslie. She is a fantastic
student researcher. It seems like only yesterday that Leslie
came to do her rotation in my lab. Now, she has been
here for five years!
Leslie was very interested in biophysics when she came
to UMass, and rotated in the labs of two different
biophysicists. I was very lucky that she chose my lab.
She is a hard worker with amazing hands who can
turn any written protocol from a paper into a working
experiment. Further, she is also thoughtful and creative
with an amazing attention to detail. She offers help and
mentoring to other students and undergraduates, and
is the person in the lab who people turn to first for help,
which she is always willing to provide.
Leslie is a great microscopist. She wields our home-built
total internal reflection fluorescence microscope for single
molecule imaging like it is an extension of herself. She has
an essential skill required for scientific measurements: the
ability to spot something interesting and pursue it until
you figure out what is happening. This has led her to a
number of interesting and novel experimental results that
have resulted in publications in Nature, Cell Biology, and
PNAS. She will likely submit two more publications on
similar novel results before she leaves. We are definitely
going to submit some of her new, very cool work, to Bio-
physical Journal. Although I am sad to have Leslie leave
the lab, I know she will continue to impress and amaze.
Having her represent my laboratory is truly an honor. It
has been a privilege to serve as her adviser and mentor for
the past five years.

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Upcoming Events
Please visit www.biophysics.org for a complete list of upcoming events.
Biophysical Society Newsletter juLY 2013
11400 Rockville Pike, Suite 800
Rockville, Maryland 20852
Biophysical Society
September
September 3–7, 2013
Role of MDR Proteins in
Pharmacokinetics and Toxicology
Masurian Lake District, Poland
crservices.debhosting.net/In-
dex/speakers
September 29–October 3,
2013
Mechanobiology of
Proteins and Cells
Salisbury Cove, Maine
www.biophysics.
org/2013maine/Home/
tabid/4368/Default.aspx
October
September 29–October 4, 2013
Systems Dynamics in Endocytosis
Villars, Switzerland
events.embo.org/13-endocytosis/
index.html
October 28–November 1, 2013
The 4th
International Symposium
on Dynamics of Mitochondria
Okinawa, Japan
www.fbs.osaka-u.ac.jp/Dyna
Mito2013/DynaMito2013/
Welcome.html
November
November 3–7, 2013
Cell-cell Fusion
Ein Gedi, Israel
events.embo.org/13-cell-fusion/
speakers.html
November 24–27, 2013
The 37th
Annual Conference of the
Australian Society for Biophysics
Melbourne, Australia
www.biophysics.org.au/
December
December 2–4, 2013
Complex Systems in
Immunology
Biopolis, Singapore
events.embo.org/13-systems-
immunology/speakers.html
December 2–5, 2013
Biological Interpretation of
Next-Generation Sequencing Data
Cambridgeshire, Unite Kingdom
http://www.ebi.ac.uk/train-
ing/course/biological-NGS