BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
8
MAY
2014
Special Issue: Focuson
QuantitativeCell Biology
ThisNovember,
Biophysical
Journal
will publish a special is-
sue focusing on quantitative cell
biology.This venture recognizes
the rapid growth of quantita-
tive research in this area over
the last few years.Traditionally,
biophysics has thrived by apply-
ing reductionist approaches to
unravel biologicalmechanisms and, to this day,
approaches such as single-moleculemicroscopy
continue to bring fresh insights into the functions
of cells and organisms.
Of course, we also know that these biomolecules
interact to form complex functional networks that
oftendisplay emergent properties that would be
difficult to predict solely from anunderstanding
of the constituent parts. At the same time, we
are learning that cell-to-cell variability is not only
universal, it is also functionally important.Thus,
in the sameways that single-molecule experiments
have informed our understanding of functional
distributions ofmolecules, single-cell experiments
are revealing the significant biological consequenc-
es of heterogeneity.
Ongoing advances in instrumentation and com-
putationalmodeling capabilities continue to fuel
the growth of quantitative cell biology. Formany
years, therewas awide gap betweenhigh-through-
put genomic andproteomic technologies, which
yielded vast numbers of parameters ensemble-
averaged overmillions of cells, andmicroscopic
or cytometricmethods, whichprovideddata on
a limitednumber of parameters in single cells.
However, improvements in sequencing technology
nowpermit genome-wide quantitative analysis
of single cells. At the same time, technological
breakthroughs are leading tomulti-parametric
data from single cells, and together, these tech-
nologies are leading to a convergence of high-
throughput -omics and single-cell biology. Sitting
on top of all these data aremathematical and
computationalmodels, which are critical toward
developing a quantitative understanding of such
large and complex datasets.
Major goals of quantitative cell biology are to
further our understanding of the interactions
betweenmolecular networks within cells and to
elucidate how these interactions are regulated.
Understanding suchmechanisms and interactions
at the cellular level will require the concepts and
methods of physics, chemistry,mathematics, en-
gineering, and computational science.Thus, bio-
physicsts are ideally suited to lead such research.
The
Biophysical Journal
aims to publish the highest
qualitywork, andwe expect that all the articles in
this special issuewill be of sufficient importance
to be of general interest to biophysicists, regard-
less of their research specialty.To allow rigorous
peerreview, the deadline for submission to this
special issue on quantitative cell biology is July 1,
2014, and authors interested inhaving their work
included in this issue should specify that they are
interested in being considered for this issue in
their cover letter.
Instructions for authors canbe found at http://
download.cell.com/images/edimages/Biophys/In-
structions_to_Authors.pdf.
—
Dave Piston
, Editor, Cell Biophysics Section
New&Notables
Eachmonth a fewpapers are highlighted in
BJ
with aNew&Notable, which are commentaries
that highlight a point, question, or controversy
raised in the paper they discuss. Visit
-
physj.org/home to read these articles from a recent
issue of
BJ
.
Shedding Light onConfor-
mationalDynamics inNa
byChristofGrewer, which
highlights the paper
Correlat-
ingChargeMovements with
Local Conformational Changes
of aNa+-CoupledCotransporter
by
IanForster and
Monica Patti.
Nanoscopic InjurywithMacroscopicConsequences:
TauProteins asMediators ofDiffuse Axonal In-
jury
, byGuyGenin, whichhighlights the paper
DavidPiston
Biophysical Journal Corner
