Black In Biophysics

Today is the last day of #BPS2026! We loved celebrating the accomplishments of our community. Starting with our inaugural #BIBPS Travel Awardees, Emmanuel Osei and Skylar Grimsley, to the outstanding science shared at the #BlackInBiophysics Symposium. Congratulations to all! 👏🏾

Join the Biopolymers In Vivo (BIV) Subgroup for a webinar on Tuesday, March 24 at 4:00 PM EST. The symposium will highlight the research of four graduate students from the Subgroup. Register here: tinyurl.com/mr3r97bc

Nature research paper: Snapshots of the dynamic basis of NTSR1 G protein subtype promiscuity go.nature.com/4rtdvbd

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No-cost workshop opportunities for grad students, postdocs, & trainees! Our Janelia Research Campus is accepting apps for 3 specialized, intensive workshops w/ presentation & networking opportunities. Accommodations, meals, & travel expenses covered: bit.ly/4roghP6.

Scientists say they have made some of the first direct measurements of how long it takes a protein to fold – and the results were surprising go.nature.com/4rqMIw7

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Join us during #BiophysicsWeek for the JUST-B Spring Seminar! We're highlighting the work of two trainees who have participated in the JUST-B Poster Session. Tuesday, March 24, 2026 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM buff.ly/6YMcw4o

This is really cool (and wild): Scientists simulated a complete living cell for the first time. Every molecule, every reaction, from DNA replication to cell division. The paper (Luthey-Schulten et al., Cell 2026, doi.org/10.1016/j.cell…), just out today, used JCVI-Syn3A — a synthetic minimal bacterium with fewer than 500 genes. A 3D+time simulation of the full 105-minute cell cycle: DNA replication, protein translation, metabolism, division. Every gene, protein, RNA, and chemical reaction tracked through physical space. It took years to build. Multiple GPUs. Six days of compute time per run. And this is the simplest possible cell. A human cell has ~20,000 genes. It lives in tissue. It interacts with neighbors. It differentiates. It responds to drugs in ways that depend on context we haven't fully measured. Mechanistic simulation of the minimal cell costs 6 GPU-days for 105 minutes of biology. You cannot scale that to human cells. The complexity isn't 40x harder. It's exponentially harder. This is why the field pivoted to data-driven models. You can't hand-encode the regulatory wiring of a human hepatocyte. But you can learn it — if you have the right perturbation data collected across enough diverse biological contexts. The two approaches aren't competing. Papers like this generate the ground truth that future ML models need for validation. But the path to a clinically useful virtual cell runs through foundation models, not through scaling up mechanistic simulation. Amazing work!

Scientists say they have made some of the first direct measurements of how long it takes an individual, ordinary protein to fold – and the results were surprising. go.nature.com/4ukn8eZ

Chronic pain, purinergic signaling, and GPCR drug design. NIH medicinal chemist Kenneth A. Jacobson joins Dr. GPCR to discuss A3 receptor agonists, P2Y14 antagonists, and structure-guided ligand discovery. Learn more →ecosystem.drgpcr.com/gpcr-mastercla… #DrGPCR #GPCR

Help us celebrate #BiophysicsWeek by contributing a Classical Lay Summary! Your summary will be reviewed by the Early Careers Committee & selected pieces will be featured on the BPS Blog and social media. Submit your piece and a related graphic to eyosebashvili@biophysics.org

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Don’t forget to grab your #BlackInBiophysics t-shirt before you go home! You can get them at the @BiophysicalSoc Society Booth. Sales will help us organize #BlackInBiophysicsWeek 2026 🙌🏾 #BPS2026

The 2026 #BlackInBiophysics Symposium at #BPS206 has concluded. 👏🏾 👏🏾 👏🏾 Congratulations to all the speakers and to the co-chairs of this session, Drs. Breann Brown and Wade Zeno for organizing and for highlighting the exceptional science done by our members! @BiophysicalSoc

The final talk of the 2026 #BlackInBiophysics Symposium has begun! Dr. Hawa Racine Thiam from @Stanford is presenting on “Neutrophil biophysics through the lens on netosis.” #BPS2026 @BiophysicalSoc

Another outstanding talk at the 2026 #BlackInBiophysics Symposium at #BPS2026! 👏🏾 The final talk will begin soon! @BiophysicalSoc

The 2nd talk in the 2026 #BlackInBiophysics Symposium is starting! Dr. Heather Pinkett from @NorthwesternU is presenting “Molecular turnstiles: Following ABC transporters in motion.” @biophysicalsoc

The 2026 #BlackInBiophysics Symposium at the @biophysicalsoc Meeting has begun! 🤩 Dr. Alemayehu Gorfe is presenting on the “Dynamics of lipid-anchored membrane proteins.” #BlackExcellence

Our community is outstanding! 💪🏾 #BlackInBiophysics