Biophysical Society Newsletter
9
february
2014
Dear Molly Cule
Professor Molly Cule is delighted to receive comments on her answers and (anonymized) questions
at
, or visit her on the BPS Blog.
“I am a student of Physics. I want to go for
research in molecular biology. Please help
me to explore this field. What are the op-
tions for a guy from physics in biology in
research?”
Well, as a physicist with an interest in biology
you could certainly do a lot worse than explore
your options in the heady realm of biophysics,
that’s for sure! The Biophysical Society is ready
and willing to assist in such a transition, and this
helpful pamphlet (
/
Portals/1/PDFs/Career%20Center/Careers%20
In%20Biophysics.pdf) is where I would advise
you to begin said exploration.
It’s difficult to provide cogent advice without
further information about your interests and
skills. However, you specify molecular biology
as a particular area of interest. As you will learn,
the area of molecular biology is big. It’s really big.
When the late
Douglas Adams
wrote,
“You just
won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big
it is,
” he could have been talking about the area of
molecular biology. He wasn’t, of course, he was
talking about space, but regardlessthe point is that
an investigator studying molecular biology can
spend an entire career meticulously unraveling the
secrets of one single protein, or one single domain
of one single protein.
Your motivation for switching fields is an im-
portant piece of information missing from your
question. To help focus your search, you may
want to look into your skillset and determine the
topics in physics that you are good at or comfort-
able with, and envision how those principles could
be applied to molecular biology or biophysical
problems. There are lots of proteins to study and
somebody, somewhere, is probably investigating
one meticulously that could benefit from quan-
titative skill that you can offer building on your
(
Continued on page 10)
physics background. Also, consider whether you
would prefer to pursue theoretical/computational
studies, hands-on molecular or cellular biophysical
experiments, or a mix of both.
An investigator’s interest in molecular biology
usually stems from an initial interest in a particu-
lar biological function (how T-cells learn; how
the cardiac muscle contracts; how tumor cells
perform extravasation; how neurotransmitter
is released from a synaptic terminal; how DNA
methylation affects gene expression; how &c,
&c…). In many cases, the biological function
is one in which dysfunction is associated with
a disease state of some clinical importance. In
some cases, the intent is purely to understand the
mechanism of the biological function for its own
sake, perhaps with a view to learning something
from it that might provide utility beyond the
realm of biology.
On the face of it, your decision may appear
daunting, but once you develop an interest and
a plan to learn about biophysical function of an
important biological problem the rewards are
endless. It all seems absurd on the face of it, until
you appreciate that a critical step in advancing hu-
man health requires that we understand disease
mechanisms at the molecular level. By under-
standing how the structure of a molecule, be it a
polynucleotide or a protein, confers its function,
we can learn not only how an error in structure
might underpin an error in function (e.g., how
a polymorphism gives rise to the symptoms of a
particular congenital disorder), but also how to
potentially manipulate the molecule of inter-
est in a manner that might provide therapeutic
benefit (perhaps by designing a drug to inhibit or
activate it). Examples include, studying ion chan-
nels with a view to developing semi-permeable
