Subgroup Emerging Science Week

Emerging Concepts in Macromolecular Assemblies and Machines

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM EST

Macromolecular machines and assemblies (MMAs) are essential to many key cellular processes. Join the MMA subgroup for a webinar series featuring emerging ideas and the latest discoveries about how these remarkable complexes operate.

Speaker: David Rueda, Imperial College London

Emerging Science and Scientists in Muscle Biology

12:30 PM – 1:30 PM EST

Join the new Muscle Biology Subgroup for a four-day series highlighting emerging science and scientists shaping the future of muscle research. Each 1-hour session will feature talks from investigators working at the leading edge of the field, covering new approaches, surprising findings, and open questions in muscle structure, function, and disease. Whether your focus is skeletal, cardiac, or smooth muscle, or you approach muscle biology from a biophysical, molecular, cellular, or physiological angle, these sessions will spotlight the next wave of discoveries and the researchers behind them.

Emerging Concepts in Macromolecular Assemblies and Machines

1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EST

Macromolecular machines and assemblies (MMAs) are essential to many key cellular processes. Join the MMA subgroup for a webinar series featuring emerging ideas and the latest discoveries about how these remarkable complexes operate.

Speaker: Neville Bethel, UCSD

Probing Biology with Quantum Light

9:00 AM – 11:00 AM EST

Fluorescence excited with 'quantum light' (photons in non-classical states), it can fundamentally break the classical limits, e.g. of resolution and excitation probability. These properties herald new ways of probing living matter with fluorescent reporters.

Lipids Feeling the World

11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST

Lipids form the compartments that organize life. While doing so, they interact with an incredible variety of other molecules and supramolecular structures, things that touch the membrane on either side, are embedded inside, or simply want to get through. What are the chemical and biophysical principles that shape such interactions? How have biomembranes evolved to become such versatile interfaces to the world? In this webinar we will hear from three scientists who have examined questions of this kind from different directions, focusing on different molecules, and using different tools.

Speakers:
Janice Robertson, Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Washington University St. Louis, USA
Luca Monticelli, Molecular Microbiology and Structural Biochemistry, INSERM, Lyon, France
Rumiana Dimova, Biophysics Lab, Max-Planck-Institute for Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam, Germany

Emerging Technologies in Mechanobiology

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EST

This hour-long session will feature two 30-minute talks on emerging technologies relevant to mechanobiology research, given by Timo Betz (Gottingen), on measuring mechanics in living systems using passive particle trajectories, and Khalid Salaita (Emory), on genetically-encoded tension sensors.

Emerging Science and Scientists in Muscle Biology

12:30 PM – 1:30 PM EST

Join the new Muscle Biology Subgroup for a four-day series highlighting emerging science and scientists shaping the future of muscle research. Each 1-hour session will feature talks from investigators working at the leading edge of the field, covering new approaches, surprising findings, and open questions in muscle structure, function, and disease. Whether your focus is skeletal, cardiac, or smooth muscle, or you approach muscle biology from a biophysical, molecular, cellular, or physiological angle, these sessions will spotlight the next wave of discoveries and the researchers behind them.

Emerging Concepts in Macromolecular Assemblies and Machines

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM EST

Macromolecular machines and assemblies (MMAs) are essential to many key cellular processes. Join the MMA subgroup for a webinar series featuring emerging ideas and the latest discoveries about how these remarkable complexes operate.

Speaker: Priya Banerjee, U of Buffalo

Emerging Science and Scientists in Muscle Biology

12:30 PM – 1:30 PM EST

Join the new Muscle Biology Subgroup for a four-day series highlighting emerging science and scientists shaping the future of muscle research. Each 1-hour session will feature talks from investigators working at the leading edge of the field, covering new approaches, surprising findings, and open questions in muscle structure, function, and disease. Whether your focus is skeletal, cardiac, or smooth muscle, or you approach muscle biology from a biophysical, molecular, cellular, or physiological angle, these sessions will spotlight the next wave of discoveries and the researchers behind them.

Biophysics of Clathrin Coat Assembly, Curvature, and Mechanics

1:00 PM – 3:00 PM EST

This virtual seminar will focus on the biophysics of clathrin coat assembly, membrane curvature, and cellular mechanics, highlighting recent advances in understanding the physical principles that govern clathrin-mediated endocytosis and membrane remodeling. Speakers will present interdisciplinary perspectives spanning biophysics, cell biology, and quantitative approaches to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying membrane deformation, force generation, and protein coat dynamics.

Speakers:
Jeanne Stachowiak
Padmini Rangamani
Julien Berro

Emerging Concepts in Macromolecular Assemblies and Machines

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM EST

Macromolecular machines and assemblies (MMAs) are essential to many key cellular processes. Join the MMA subgroup for a webinar series featuring emerging ideas and the latest discoveries about how these remarkable complexes operate.

Speaker: TBD

Emerging Science and Scientists in Muscle Biology

12:30 PM – 1:30 PM EST

Join the new Muscle Biology Subgroup for a four-day series highlighting emerging science and scientists shaping the future of muscle research. Each 1-hour session will feature talks from investigators working at the leading edge of the field, covering new approaches, surprising findings, and open questions in muscle structure, function, and disease. Whether your focus is skeletal, cardiac, or smooth muscle, or you approach muscle biology from a biophysical, molecular, cellular, or physiological angle, these sessions will spotlight the next wave of discoveries and the researchers behind them.

Frontiers in Nanoscale Approaches to Biology

10:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST

This virtual symposium, organized by the Biophysical Society's Nanoscale Approaches to Biology Subgroup, will showcase four emerging areas that are poised to shape the future of nanoscale biophysics. The program will feature four 20-minute invited talks followed by a panel discussion, providing attendees with an opportunity to learn about cutting-edge technologies and discuss future directions with leaders in the field. Topics will include AI-enabled spatial omics, event-driven and adaptive microscopy, emerging nanopore technologies for protein sequencing and molecular analysis, and clinical and biomedical applications of nanoscale biophysics. The speaker lineup will include a diverse mix of established and early-career investigators, with an emphasis on highlighting the next generation of leaders in the field and fostering international participation, including researchers from Europe. The event will also be recorded, if possible, to maximize accessibility for the broader Biophysical Society community.

Advances in Correlative Fluorescence and Force Measurements

10:00 AM – 11:30 AM EST

As part of Emerging Science Week, the Single-Molecule Force and Fluorescence Visualization & Manipulation Subgroup is organizing an interactive scientific program featuring Dr. David Rueda from Imperial College London. Dr. Rueda will present recent advances in integrating two complementary single-molecule approaches, fluorescence and force measurements, to investigate complex biological phenomena. His lecture will highlight how combining these techniques provides unique mechanistic insights into biomolecular structure, dynamics, and function that are difficult to obtain using either method alone. The presentation will be followed by an interactive discussion featuring experts in both single-molecule fluorescence and force spectroscopy. This session will provide an opportunity to exchange ideas, discuss current challenges, and explore future directions for correlative single-molecule approaches.

Speaker: Professor David Rueda, Imperial College London

Physical Cell Biology (PCB) Subgroup Virtual Symposium 2026

11:00 AM – 2:00 PM EST

The Physical Cell Biology Subgroup is hosting a virtual mini-symposium aimed at connecting early career researchers who apply physical principles to gain a deeper mechanistic understanding of cell biology at different spatiotemporal scales. This symposium will showcase presentations by young researchers who are utilizing theory, computation, and experiments to investigate the structure, dynamics, and interactions of cells in physiological contexts. The talks are based on abstracts submitted for the Biophysical Society Annual Meeting in February 2026 that were not chosen for oral presentation but that carry the promise of creativity and vigor in applying physical principles to gain deeper mechanistic insights into cell biology. This event is part of the Physical Cell Biology Subgroup’s initiative to promote visibility, breadth, and networking opportunities for young researchers in this field.

Register Now

Engineering Practices in Color Bioengineering/Biophysics Outreach

1:30 PM – 3:00 PM EST

Outreach event to teach middle school students in the Richmond area about Bioengineering and Biophysics. This will be a hands on event where students will generate a cell tensegrity model to understand better how cells use their actin cytoskeleton to drive force-mediated functions, i.e. migration or invasion.

Location: In person, Richmond, VA