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New Biological Frontiers Illuminated by Molecular Sensors and Actuators Welcome Letter
June 2015
Dear Colleagues,
We would like to welcome you to the BPS Thematic Meeting on
New Biological Frontiers
Illuminated by Molecular Sensors and Actuators
. This landmark international meeting brings together 25
of the leading minds in the areas of biological fluorescence imaging, biological tool development, and
implementation of optogenetics, all of which are used to resolve fundamental biological questions that
otherwise cannot be addressed by conventional techniques alone. We have more than 96 participants from
all over the world. The goal of this meeting is to provide the attendees with a map of the new, and largely
unexplored, landscape of powerful optical and chemical tools that enable researchers at the frontier to peer
into and harness biological systems with a level of control that was previously unimaginable.
More specifically, the recent emergence of biosensors based on fluorescent proteins, along with
optogenetic and chemical dimerization techniques, have created the ability to both visualize and perturb
biochemistry in live cells. In coming years we can expect complementary technologies based on magnetic-
and force-based stimulation to join optical and chemical techniques as indispensable research tools for
gaining novel insights into cellular biology. Due to the multidisciplinary applications of these tools, this
meeting is attracting an extremely diversified audience from the fields of biotechnology, method
development, chemical biology, material science, cell biology, general chemistry and engineering,
computational biology, and synthetic biology. This meeting is thus expected to catalyze the exchange of
ideas among this unusually diverse community, thus offering lively, inspiring opportunities for
unconventional research collaborations.
We also encourage you to take part in social and cultural activities, because Taipei has a lot to
offer. Thank you all for joining our meeting, and we look forward to having a very enjoyable four-day
event together!
Sincerely,
Takanari Inoue
Jin-Der Wen
Robert E. Campbell
Chia-Fu Chou