BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
4
OCTOBER
2014
Know the Editors
Alan Grodzinsky
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
Editor for Systems Biophysics
Section
Q:
What is your area of research?
Our group focuses on problems motivated by
diseases of the musculoskeletal system includ-
ing arthritis, connective tissue pathologies, and,
more generally, the molecular biophysics of the
extracellular matrix (ECM). As an example, it is
well known that traumatic joint injury in humans
causes cartilage degeneration and progression to
post-traumatic osteoarthritis, but the mechanobio-
logical mechanisms governing cellular transcrip-
tion, translation, and post-translational responses
to physical overload are not well understood. We
use genomic and proteomic tools to identify key
pathways associated with mechanical injury and
the resulting cell-mediated proteolytic degrada-
tion of the ECM. Atomic force microscopy and
related biophysical tools are used to image and
probe the molecular structure of ECM proteogly-
cans and proteins synthesized by connective tissue
cells in health and disease. Nanoindentation at
the molecular, cellular, and tissue levels aids in the
discovery of molecular determinants underlying
tissue pathology. Complementary projects focus on
chondrogenesis of stem cells seeded within self-
assembling peptide hydrogel scaffolds for repair of
degraded or osteoarthritic cartilage. The molecu-
lar fine structure of stem cell-synthesized ECM
molecules and the responses of these stem cells to
physiological loading during and after differentia-
tion are studied
in vitro
. Concurrent studies using
small and large animal models are ongoing. Finally,
there are currently no available disease-modifying
drugs for osteoarthritis due, in part, to lack of
appropriate delivery modalities. We are, therefore,
studying the ability of electrostatic interactions
linked to charged ECM molecules within target
tissues to enable enhanced uptake, rapid penetra-
tion, and retention of potential therapeutics.
Issue Highlights
Don’t miss these highlights in the October 7
issue of
Biophysical Journal
.
To read the articles visit
.
Biophysical Review:
Hugh E. Huxley: The Compleat Biophysicist
by
Sarah Hitchcock-DeGregori and Thomas Irving.
New & Notables
Monitoring of Single Vesicle Cytochrome c Release
Illuminates BAK as a Novel Target of Abeta
Oligomers
by Daniel Linseman, which highlights
the paper
Beta-Amyloid Oligomers Activate
Apoptotic BAK Pore for Cytochrome c Release
by
Jaewook Kim, Yoosoo Yang, Seung Soo Song,
Jung-Hyun Na, Cherlhyun Jeong, and Yeon Gyu
Yu.
Channelrhodopsin Photochromic Reactions Provide
Multi-Color Optogenetic Control
by John Spudich,
which highlights the paper
Imaging GFP-Based
Reporters in Neurons with Multi-Wavelength
Optogenetic Control
by Adam Cohen and Veena
Venkatachalam.
The Many Roles of a
Journal Publisher
Have you ever wondered what a journal publisher
does besides facilitating the peer review of
manuscripts? Last year, the blog
Scholarly Kitchen
posted a piece by Kent Anderson that lists 73
things publishers do.
Biophysical Journal
partners
with Cell Press to perform many of these functions.
View the blog post at
Biophysical Journal Corner
Alan Grodzinsky
