Biophysical Society Newsletter - April 2015

10 / 12

BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER 10 APRIL 2015
Exocytosis/Endoscytosis
The Exocytosis and Endocytosis Subgroup held
its 13th annual symposium at the 2015 Biophysi-
cal Society meeting in Baltimore, and a highlight
of the program was the Sir Bernard Katz Award
Lecture, which was presented by Ronald W. Holz
of the University of Michigan. The Sir Bernard
Katz Award for Excellence in Research on Exocy-
tosis and Endocytosis is named after one of the
founding fathers of biophysics and neuroscience,
and the Award went to Holz in recognition of his
distinguished career in this field. After the sym-
posium, subgroup members met at a reception
and dinner to congratulate the Awardee, celebrate
another successful subgroup symposium, and talk
science, of course.
Student talks selected from submitted poster
abstracts for the general meeting are another
popular feature of our subgroup symposium, and
in 2015, the three student speakers were Melanie
Schupp, University of Copenhagen; Julia Trahe,
University of Muenster; and Tejeshwar Rao,
Wayne State University. Congratulations to all
three for their excellent presentations.
The executive committee of Exocytosis and Endo-
cytosis encourages all interested biophysicists to
join our subgroup. Membership costs little (free
for students!), and it helps to ensure the contin-
ued success of our yearly symposium. If you at-
tended our subgroup symposium but are not yet
a member, please consider joining. The member-
ship application is available at
We hope to see you at the 2016 Exocytosis and
Endocytosis Subgroup Symposium at the 60th
Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society in Los
Angeles!
— Gary Matthews, Subgroup Past-Chair
IDP
The 9th annual symposium of the intrinsically
disordered proteins (IDPs) subgroup was held on
Saturday, February 7, 2015, in Baltimore, Mary-
land, under the aegis of the 59th Annual Meeting
of the Biophysical Society. This year’s subgroup
symposium represented a turning point for the
IDP field. The meeting highlighted the rapid
progress being made on the technological front
and in efforts to uncover the functional conse-
quences of conformational heterogeneity.
Ashok Deniz, The Scripps Research Institute,
opened the meeting with a keynote address that
showcased insights regarding mechanisms of
coupled folding and binding and IDP dynam-
ics that he has gleaned using state-of-the-art
single molecule fluorescence methods. Dariush
Hinderberger, Martin Luther University in Halle-
Wittenberg, used osteopontin as an example to
highlight the insights afforded by combining
EPR spectroscopy with polymer physics theories.
John Bushweller, University of Virginia, walked
the audience through hidden complexities that
characterize the array of interactions that underlie
the biophysical properties of the leukemogenic
protein product of the fusion gene MLL-AF9.
Edward Lemke, EMBL, Heidelberg, talked about
insights generated from his single molecule stud-
ies of Nup153—an important component of
the nuclear pore complex—its interactions with
nuclear importins, and the broader implications
for dynamics within complexes formed by IDPs.
This year’s symposium also included talks fea-
turing investigations that transitioned from the
test tube to cellular phenotypes. Talks presented
by Timothy Lohman and Petra Levin, both from
Washington University, highlighted the role of
disordered regions within distinct bacterial pro-
teins that facilitate cooperative interactions and
assemblies of to play fundamental roles in the life
cycles of rod-shaped bacteria. Clifford Brangwyn-
ne, Princeton University, and Tanja Mittag, St.
Jude Children’s Research Hospital, provided en-
gaging accounts of spontaneous phase transitions
controlled by distinct low complexity sequences
that give rise to non-membrane bound organ-
elles within cells. The symposium also featured
Subgroups
Celebrating at the Exocytosis
and Endocytosis Subgroup
dinner. Standing: 2015 Katz
Award winner Ronald W.
Holz (left) and symposium
speakers Shigeki Watanabe
and Jeremy Dittman. Seated:
symposium speaker Elisa-
beth Glowatzki (left), sub-
group founding chair Robert
H. Chow, and BPS Councilor
Ruth Heidelberger.