Biophysical Newsletter - September 2014

12

BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER

2014

SEPTEMBER

Subgroups

Membrane Biophysics FINAL Call for nominations for the 2015 Kenneth S. Cole Award The Membrane Biophysics subgroup is now solic- iting nominations for the Kenneth S. Cole Award. This is an annual award, given to an investiga- tor who has made a substantial contribution to the understanding of membrane biophysics. The award will be presented at the subgroup dinner directly following the Saturday afternoon sympo- sium at the 2015 Annual Meeting in Baltimore. This year’s dinner will be held in conjunction with the Permeation and Transport subgroup. Pre- registration for the dinner is encouraged and can be completed along with the meeting registration. Any member of the Membrane Biophysics sub- group may be a nominator. Additional details and a list of previous awardees can be found on the society website at www.biophysics.org. From the main page, click 'Subgroups' and then 'Membrane Biophysics'. The recipient will be determined by the selection committee, consisting of the Subgroup Chair, the Chair-elect, the past Chair, the past past Chair and the Secretary-Treasurer. Nominations should contain a brief statement summarizing the qualifi- cations of the nominee and a CV. The deadline for nominations is October 17th, 2014. Please email nominations to the subgroup Secretary-Treasurer, Chris Ahern (christopher- ahern@uiowa.edu) Announcement of the 2015 Cole Awardee and additional details about the dinner will be posted on the website, announced by email, and included in the newsletter when available. — Christopher A. Ahern , Secretary/Treasurer, Membrane Biophysics subgroup

IDP In July, the biennial IDP Gordon Research Conference (GRC) was held at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts. Preceding this six-day event was the inaugural IDP Gordon Research Seminar (GRS), Fundamental Characteristics and Approaches to Understand the Biological Functions of IDPs , organized by UCSF’s Aurelia Ball and Charles Ravarani , Cambridge. The GRS is open only to graduate students and postdocs, and allows junior researchers to present their work directly to their peers, meet each other, and socialize. Over the course of the two days, attendees heard about a range of different tools and approaches for studying IDPs, as well as many specific examples of how the behavior and properties of IDPs link directly to phenotype. In addition to the talks, poster sessions provided a more interactive stage for presenters to garner feedback, and to prepare themselves for further discussion with the incred- ible group of world experts who attended the GRC. A career panel rounded off the seminar, where more senior researchers at various stages in their career provided honest and insightful advice regarding career development, types of academic roles, and the kinds of opportunities available for those in the IDP field. As with the IDP subgroup meeting at the Biophysical Society conference in February, one thing that really struck me about the IDP community was the openness to new ideas and willingness to share data, theories, and resources. The constantly overheard exclamation of “I didn’t really think of myself as an IDP person but…” provides an impression of the pervasive- ness of disordered proteins in biology and gave rise to an incredible diversity of approaches, back- grounds, and systems. The GRS and the GRC were hits with both established players and fresh- faced newcomers alike. — Alex Holehouse , Washington University, Graduate Student Representative, IDP subgroup