BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
16
NOVEMBER
2014
Subgroups
BIV
Fascinated by Live Cells
Maxim Prigozhin
, the BIV subgroup postdoc rep-
resentative, is interviewed in this issue of the BPS
newsletter. Max did his undergrad at the Univer-
sity of Toronto before he joined the lab of
Martin
Gruebele
at the University of Illinois for his PhD
in chemical physics. He is now at Stanford Uni-
versity working with
Steven Chu
.
When did you become excited about
biophysics?
I did some biophysics research during my under-
graduate studies, which is why I decided to pursue
this direction in graduate school. What drew me
to biophysics in the first place is how eclectic this
area of research is. For example, in Martin’s lab,
we did everything ourselves: we cultured cells,
mutated and expressed proteins, played with lasers,
built microscopes, designed electronics, wrote
software for simulation and data analysis... you
name it! Everyone could really pick what they
were excited about doing the most and forge their
own path. And if you got bored, well, you just did
something else for a while!
What was your motivation to join the
Biopolymers in Vivo (BIV) subgroup?
My PhD work was mostly concerned with pro-
teins in a test tube. For my postdoc, I decided to
switch into the realm of live-cell biophysics. I fig-
ured, this way the biopolymers get to stay in their
native environment and I don’t have to express/
purify them anymore! I naturally gravitated to-
wards the BIV subgroup because its members, like
myself, seek to combine the microscopic under-
standing of the chemistry of biomolecular interac-
tions with the meso- and macroscopic arrange-
ments that these interactions lead to. I believe that
this “from-the-ground-up” approach is ultimately
the one to take if we want to understand how the
living things function.
Has joining the BIV subgroup impact
the way you think about the field yet?
It is hard to say because I joined the BIV
subgroup roughly at the same time that I moved
from UIUC to Stanford to start my postdoc,
which overall had a big impact on me. It is
difficult to decouple the contributions of individu-
al events. I think interacting with the best scientist
in my field will inevitably have an impact on me
over time. I hope that this membership will help
me shape my scientific interests and identify my
own future research directions.
What activity of the BIV subgroup is
most important to you?
I think the most exciting activity for any member
of the Biophysical Society is the BPS annual meet-
ing, and for me as a member of the BIV subgroup,
it is the BIV symposium that I look forward to
the most. This symposium is a very unique forum
that brings together researchers at various stages
in their career who are really at the forefront of
exploring fundamental mechanisms of molecular
and cell biology, building tools to investigate these
mechanisms, and using the discovered rules to
solve problems in biotechnology and biomedicine.
In addition, during my tenure as the BIV sub-
group postdoc representative I also hope to help
increase the student/postdoc participation in the
other initiatives of BIV, e.g., the dissemination of
in vivo-related cutting-edge science and research
symposia, and the BIV logo contest.
—
Silvia Cavagnero
, BIV Subgroup Chair
