The Membrane Protein Structural Dynamics Consortium is always very well represented at the annual Biophysical Society meeting, with Consortium members actively involved at the leadership level, including Francisco Bezanilla‘s tenure as president from 2012 to 2014, as well as at the level of participants in a remarkably large number of workshops, symposia, and presentations.
At next year’s meeting in Baltimore, MPSDC members will participate in a number of specialty symposia and workshops organized by the Biophysical society (more information on the nature of these symposia and workshops can be found on the Biophysical Society meeting website here). We would like to highlight the following in particular (though there are and will certainly be more ways in which Consortium members are involved with the meeting):
- Emad Tajkhorshid (UIUC) will be chairing the Permeation & Transport Subgroup 2015 Symposium. He is also chairing a workshop on Advances in Computing Large Systems.
- Olga Boudker (Weill Cornell Medical College) is chairing a symposium on Neurotransmitter Transporters.
- Christopher Ahern (University of Iowa) is participating in a symposium on Probing Ion Channel Structure/Function Using Novel Tools.
- Jamies Bowie (UCLA) is participating in a workshop on Stabilizing Membrane Proteins.
- Ivet Bahar (UPittsburgh) is giving a lecture titled “Neurotransmitter Translocation: Insights from Network Models and Multiscale Simulations” at the Biopolymers in Vivo Subgroup 2015 Symposium.
- José Faraldo Gómez (NIH and MPSDC Associate Member) is giving a lecture titled “Novel Insights into the Structure and Mechanism of Proton and Sodium/Calcium Exchangers” at the Membrane Biophysics Subgroup 2015 Symposium.
Last but not least, MPSDC member and one of our keynote speakers at Frontiers in Membrane Protein Structural Dynamics 2014 Klaus Schulten (UIUC) will give the prestigious National Lecture. The National Lecturer is the highest award given each year by the Biophysical Society. The recipient presents the National Lecture on Monday evening of the Annual Meeting. We would like to congratulate Dr. Schulten on achieving this great honor.
See also: interviews from last year’s Biophysical Society with Francisco Bezanilla, Past President and Robert Nakamoto, Chair of the 2014 BPS Program Committee.