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Biophysical Society announces 2008 International Travel Awards

Bethesda, MD— The Biophysical Society has announced the winners of its international travel grants to attend the Joint Meeting of the Biophysical Society and the International Biophysics Congress in Long Beach, California, February 2-6, 2008. The purpose of these awards is to foster and initiate further interaction between American biophysicists and scientists working in countries experiencing financial difficulties. Recipients of this competitive award are chosen based on scientific merit and their proposed presentation at the meeting. They will be honored at a reception on February 2, 2008.

The 2008 recipients of the International Travel Award are:

• Marcin Balcerzak, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Warsaw, Poland, “Non-Channel Function of Bacterial Mechanosensitive Channel MscS.”

• Khundrakpam Budhachandra, Singh National Brain Research Centre, Gurgaon, India, “Dynamic Space-time Representation in the Neural System: A Novel Formulation using Tensor Image Analysis.”

• Octavian O. Calborean, University of Bucharest, Romania, “3D Structure of the Unliganded gp120 Based on Structural Homology and Molecular Dynamics Symulations.”

• Ariel E. Contreras, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile, “Insulin Stimulates Glucose Uptake Through IP3-dependent Intracellular Calcium Release in Rat Neonatal Cardiac Myocytes.”

• Jose M. Delfino, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, “Stability and Folding of a TRX Fragment.”

• Reinaldo V. DiPolo, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas, Caracas, Venezuela, “Dual Effect of Na+I on Ca2+ Influx Through the Na+/ca2+ Exchanger in Dialyzed Squid Axons. Experimental Data Confirming the Validity of the Squid Axon Kinetic Model.”

• Elspeth B. Elliott, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom, “K201 Inhibits Diastolic Ca2+ Release And Contractions in Isolated Rat Cardiomyocytes Without Increasing Subsequent Transient Amplitude.”

• Yingang Feng, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, “Solution Structure and DNA-binding Surface of a Crenarchaea-conserved Chromatin Protein.”

• Slawomir Filipek, International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Warsaw, Poland, “Agonist/Antagonist Sensor in Opioid Receptors-Molecular Modeling Study.”

• Mark R. Fowler, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom, “Spatially Restricted Ca2+ Transients Reflect Release by the SR in Rabbit Ventricular Myocytes.”

• Maria A. Frias, Universidad de Tucuman, Argentina, “Carbonyl Configuration and Hydration of Curved and Ripples States of Lipid Interphases.”

• Silvina B. Gayol, Centro de Neurociencia de Valparaiso, Chile, “In Xenopus Oocytes Glycosylation of Shaker K+ Channels Alters its Expression in the Plasma Membrane and Activation Kinetics.”

• Iffath A. Ghouri, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom, “Spectroscopic, Confocal and 2-Photon Characterisation of Intrinsic Fluorescence in Isolated Heart Cells for Metabolic Studies.”

• Priscila V. Goliatt, National Laboratory for Scientific Computing, Petrópolis, Brazil, “Temperature Effects on Structural Properties of Active Sites: Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Cruzipain Isoforms.”

• Debanjan Goswami, National Center for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, India, “Steady State Distribution and Dynamics of GPI-anchored Protein-Nanoclusters in Cell Membranes is Modulated By Cortical Actin Activity.”

• Vivian M. Gonzalez-Perez, Centro de Neurociencia de Valparaiso, Chile, “Addition of a Charge to the Shaker Potassium Channel Voltage Sensor.”

• Manuel Gutierrez-Aguilar, Instituto de Fisiologia Celular, Mexico, “In Yeast, Ca2+ and Octylguanidine Interact with Porin (VDAC) Preventing the Mitochondrial Permeability Transition.”

• Vanesa S. Herlax, Instituo de Investigaciones Bioquimicas de La Plata, Argentina, “The Interaction of Alpha-hemolysin with Specific Microdomains at Sublytic Concentration.”

• Miki Hirabayashi, University of Tokyo, Japan, “Dynamical Modeling of Decision Making Based on Hierarchically Optimized Memory.”

• Md. I. Hossain, Okazaki Institute for Integrative Bioscience, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Japan, “Voltage Range for Tuning of Phosphatase of Ci-vsp as Measured by Two PIP2-Sensors.”

• Naranamangalam R. Jagannathan, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India, “Role of Various in vivo MR Methodologies in the Evaluation of Prostate Cancer.”

• Rishi Jain, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India, “Crystal Structure of the Complex of Cameline Peptidoglycan Recognition Protein with Disaccharide at 3.2Å Resolution.”

• Jiansen Jiang, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, “Architecture of DegP Oligomers in Capturing Substrate Proteins Revealed by Cryo-electron Microsopy.”

• Nevenka Juretic, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile, “Gene Expression upon Electrical Stimuli in Normal and Dystrophic Muscle Cell Lines.”

• Denis E. Kainov, Institute of Genetics and Molecular Biology, France, “Molecular Basis of TTDA Disorder.”

• Shahbaz J. Khan, Kyoto University, Japan, “An Inside View of Photo Excited PYP Mutants Photoreaction Revealed by a Biosensor in Time Domain.”

• Piotr R. Koprowski, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Warsaw, Poland, “Genetic Screen For A Conducting State Of MscS Mechanosensitive Channel Using K+ Uptake-deficient Escherichia coli.”

• J. Krishnan, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar, India, “The Heart as a Learning Machine.”

• Xing Liu, University of Leeds, United Kingdom, “Key Residues Involved in Zinc and Copper Inhibition of P2x7 Receptors.”

• R. Malathi, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, India, “Arrhythmia Studies using Computational Model of Ventricular Tissue.”

• Carlo Manno, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas, Caracas, Venezuela, “Importance of NCX in the Regulation of Ca2+ Homeostasis in Skeletal Muscle.”

• Maria V. Mernea, University of Bucharest, Romania, “A Three-Dimensional Model of Epithelial Sodium Channel Based on the Homology with Acid-Sensing Ion Channel.”

• Alexandra I. Moraru, University of Bucharest, Romania, “CHARMM Force Field Parameterization of Lipid A.” Jose D. Munoz, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogota, Colombia, “Brownian Dynamics Simulation of the F1-ATPase Molecular Motor.”

• Sascha Nicklisch, University of Cologne, Germany, “Cw-EPR Based Structural and Functional Characterization of a Molecular Switch.”

• Pablo G. Nieto, Instituto de Fisica, San Luis Potosi, Mexico, “Regulation of Gating and Kinetics Of Clc-2 By Extracellular Protons.”

• Hector J. Ocampo, Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia, “Entering the Solid-order Phase by Lowering Temperature Makes Staphylococcus aureus Membranes Resistant to PLA2-IIA.”

• Ferenc Papp, University of Debrecen, Hungary, “CRAC Channels in Developing Human Dendritic Cells.”

• Nina Pastor, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, Cuernavaca, Mexico, “Thermal Stability of the TATA Box Binding Protein.”

• Astghik Z. Pepoyan, Institute of Molecular Biology of NAS RA, Armenia, “Lyophilization and Storage of E. coli Cells from the Probiotic Formula ASAP not Affecting Bacterial Growth.”

• Alex Perávarez-Marín, Stockholm University, Sweden, “Time-Resolved Infrared Spectroscopy of pH-Induced Aggregation of the Alzheimer Ab1-28 Peptide.”

• Suman Nag, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India, “Kinetics of Misfolding and Aggregation of Amyloid Proteins.”

• Per Rigler, University of Basel, Switzerland, “Measuring Interactions between the Antennapedia Homeodomain and DNA using Fluorescence Cross-Correlation Spectroscopy with a Biarsenical Ligand.”

• Alexander M. Ryvkin, Ural State University, Russian Federation, “Spark Generating Stochastic Dynamics of Release Unit in a Cardiac Cell.”

• Hector Salazar, Instituto de Fisiologia Celular UNAM, Mexico, “The Molecular Basis for TRPV1 Activation by Pungent Compounds.”

• Jorge E. Sanchez, Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosi, Mexico, “Chloride Ions and the Gating Mechanism of CLC-2 Chloride Channel.”

• Gusztav Schay, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary, “The Role of Collective, Ms Timescale Dynamics in the Regulation of Multi-domain Proteins: A Phosphorescence Approach.”

• Feride Severcan, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, “The Investigation of Ionizing Radiation- Induced Damages on Liver Microsomal Membranes by FTIR Spectroscopy.”

• Aytac A. Seymen, Ankara University, Turkey, “Beneficial Effects of Long-term Treatment with Beta-adrenergic Blocker on Depressed Heart Function of Female Rats.”

• Alka Shukla, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, “Identification of Early Endocytic Structures After Stimulation of Pancreatic Acinar Cells.”

• Meera Singh, Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi, India, “Homology Modeling of Signalling Glycoprotein from Camel (SPU-40) and Its Functional Characterization.”

• Chiara Stringari, University of Florence, Italy, “Structural Dynamics of the Skeletal Muscle Fiber in Different Physiological States by Second Harmonic Generation.”

• Sanvidhan G. Suke, University College of Medical Sciences and G.T.B. Hospital, University of Delhi, India , “Dose Dependent Effect of Organophasphate Compound on Oxidative Stress and Induction of DNA Damage.”

• Rajaram Swaminathan, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, India, “How Does SDS, CTAB and DTT Affect the Size, Rotational Dynamics and Growth Kinetics of Soluble Lysozyme Aggregates"”

• David V. Svintradze, Tbilisi State University, Georgia, Russian Federation, “Entropy Definition of Non-Equilibrium Biological Macromolecules.”

• Vladimir Teif, Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Belarus National Academy of Sciences, Minsk, Belarus, “Matrix Formalism for Statistical-Mechanical Description of Gene Regulation.”

• Judit Toth, Institute of Enzymology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary, “The Role of g-phosphate Binding in the Catalytic Mechanism of dUTPase.”

• Armen Trchounian, Yerevan State University, Armenia, “Role of the F0F1-ATPase in Bacterial Effects of Electromagnetic Irradiation with Extremely High Freguency and Low Intensity.”

• Kyrylo Tron, University of Ulm, Germany, “Quantitative Characterization of C-reactive Protein Interaction with Fc-gamma Receptors by Ultrasensitive Confocal Fluorescence Imaging of Living Cells.”

• Erkan Tuncay, Ankara University, Turkey, “Differential Effects of Timolol and Propranolol on Heart Function during Maturation.”

• Vladimir P. Tychinsky, Moscow State Institute for Radioengineering, Electronics and Automation, Russian Federation, “Dynamic Phase Microscopy: Is A 'Dialogue' With the Cell Possible"”

• Rajakrishnan Vijayakrishnan, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India, “A Computer Modeling Approach towards Designing Dual LOX/COX Inhibitors as Potent Anti-Cancer Drugs.”

• Shi-Qiang, Wang, Peking University, Beijing, China, “B-adrenergic Modulation of the Intermolecular Signaling Between a Single L-type Ca2+ Channel and Ryanodine Receptors in Rat Heart Cells.”

• Xu-Long Wang, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, “Intracellular Calcium Dynamics Mediated by NMDA Receptors in Retinal Horizontal Cells.”

• Merridee A. Wouters, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Sydney, Australia, “'Forbidden' Disulfides: Their Role as Redox Switches.”

• Rong Xia, Institute of Membrane and System Biology, Leeds, United Kingdom, “Role of the Conserved Asp987 Residue in the Ca2+ Permeation of hTRPM2 Channel.”

• Junichiro Yajima, Gakushuin University, Tokyo, Japan, “Microtubule Sliding and Rotation Driven by Single-Headed Kinesins.” Alexandra Zahradnikova, Jr., Institute of Molecular Physiology and Genetics, Bratislava, Slovakia, “Low Amplitude of Late Ca2+ Spikes is a Result of Decreased Calcium Release Flux.”

The Biophysical Society's Annual Meeting is the world's largest meeting of biophysicists -over 6,000 attendees are expected. Over 3000 scientific abstracts have already been submitted for presentation at this event. Complete information about the Meeting can be found at http://www.biophysics.org/meetings/2008/.

The International Union for Pure and Applied Biophysics is a member of the ICSU (International Council for Science) family. Affiliated to it are the national adhering bodies of 50 countries. Its function is to support research and teaching in biophysics. Its principal regular activity is the triennial International Congresses and General Assemblies.

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