BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
12
JUNE
2014
MSAS
A Report on the MSAS Subgroup
Meeting in San Francisco
This year’s Membrane Structure and Assembly
Subgroup (MSAS) symposium in San Francisco
was devoted to a variety of aspects, mostly in the
frontiers between biophysics and other sciences,
such as microbiology, cell biology, and physics.
For the first time we had a full-day symposium,
which was very well attended from the first lecture
to the last. The morning session started with a
presentation by
William Dowhan
, based on his
studies on lipid-protein interactions in bacterial
membranes, on how lipids can determine protein
structure. This was followed by a talk by
Arne
Gericke
on how lipids mediate PTEN tumor sup-
pressor function. One of the presentations con-
necting cell biology and biophysics was given by
Ana J. García-Sáez
who described her studies on
mitochondrial permeabilization in apoptosis. The
cellular/molecular interface was also explored by
Banafshe Larijani
who showed her results on the
effects of phosphoinositides and their derivatives
on endomembrane morphology and function. The
morning session ended with
Robert V. Stahelin’s
presentation on the molecular basis of the as-
sembly and budding of the Ebola virus from the
plasma membrane of human cells.
In the afternoon
Rumiana Dimova
showed that AC
and DC electric fields can be used to deform, po-
rate, and precisely fuse giant vesicles.
Anna Shnyro-
va
demonstrated that lipid nanotubes pulled from
black lipid membranes can be used to study the
interplay of dynamin assembly and membrane fis-
sion. Next,
Viola Vogel
presented her nanotechnol-
ogy-based work on how macrophages lift bacteria
from surfaces through synchronization of the mo-
tions and tensions applied by filopodia and lamel-
lipodia.
John Katsaras
explained the advantages of
combining neutron and x-ray scattering data with
molecular dynamics simulations to obtain mem-
brane structural information such as area per lipid
molecule.
Tim Salditt
presented x-ray diffraction
studies of fusion stalk formation in dehydrated
lipid mixtures to characterize the energetic driving
forces in SNARE-mediated fusion.
The Thomas E. Thompson Award
was presented to
Sarah L. Keller
for her contribution to the fun-
damental understanding of lipid
mixture phase behavior and ther-
modynamics. Her talk, titled
Some of My Greatest Mistakes
was
a tongue-in-cheek look at the
connection between ideas and discovery highlight-
ing some key publications from the Keller labora-
tory. The award money of $ 1,000, as well as the
symposium as a whole, were sponsored by Avanti
Polar Lipids.
All colleagues who are interested in our field are
invited to be part of our community and asked to
support it by being members of the subgroup. As
this report is going to the printer the election of
the 2016 MSAS chair is taking place, we congratu-
late the elected person and thank all the candidates
who agreed to run. Many thanks also to sponsors,
members, and all attendees. We hope to see you in
Baltimore next year!
—
Felix M. Goñi
and
Marjorie Longo
, former and
current MSAS Chair
BIV
Upcoming Conferences Highlighting
Biopolymers In Vivo (BIV) Themes
After hosting a successful 4
th
symposium at the
recent Biophysical Society Meeting in San Fran-
cisco, the BIV subgroup is excited to bring to
your attention a few other worldwide events that
provide further platforms for exciting discussions
on how biomolecular processes inside the cell dif-
fer from conventional
in vitro
experiments. These
events will bring together researchers with diverse
Subgroups
Sarah Keller
