Curve Appeal: The Architecture and Engineering of Membrane Bending This webinar, hosted by the Membrane Structure & Function Subgroup of the Biophysical Society, and organized by Adam Smith, will highlight how lipid composition, protein assemblies, and membrane mechanics work together to generate and regulate membrane curvature in cells. Three invited speakers will present on membrane bending in a way that's accessible to undergraduate students interested in biochemistry and biophysics, with sufficiently many fun new things sprinkled in to also be interesting to specialists in the field. Invited speakers are: Itay Budin (UC San Diego) Margaret E. Johnson (Johns Hopkins University) Cecília Leal (University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign). Sign-up link for the webinar: https://my.biophysics.org/Events/Calendar-Of-Events/Meeting-Home-Page?meetingid=95b51c20-8219-f111-8342-7ced8d22117d We hope to have as lively an event as we had a year ago, when we also hosted a biophysics membrane webinar! Log in—it'll be fun! Please share widely!

📣 To celebrate Biophysics Week, the Membrane Structure and Function Subgroup (MSAF) of @biophysicalsoc.bsky.social will host a webinar on March 24 at 11am EDT. Our speakers are @mejohnson81.bsky.social, @ibudin.bsky.social, and Cecília Leal (not on 🦋). 🧪

👀 More info in the alt text! Please share! 🔄

Driving membrane fission is not quite as hard as it seems (at least to me!). Very happy to contribute to this work from Wade Zeno’s lab!

thanks Sarah!! We are excited to try it out with an expert experimental biophysicist if someone is interested 😀

Open science tools like Simularium help bring science to life.

@mejohnson81.bsky.social shares how it has helped her stoke curiosity in @jhuartssciences.bsky.social students and work with colleagues across timezones.

#OpenScienceWeek

Protein dimerization in 2D vs 3D: Geometric allostery enhances binding affinity Dimerization underpins all macromolecular assembly processes, both on and off the membrane. While the strength of dimerization, KD, is commonly quantified in so

How much do dimer binding affinities change for proteins on the 2D membrane vs in solution? We go beyond rigid-body entropy estimates to show conformational variations can strongly select for 2D association. Very proud of Dr Adip Jhaveri and team's comprehensive work! doi.org/10.1063/5.02...

Proteins can form dimers and bind DNA specifically and nonspecifically, exploiting 3D and 1D diffusion. This can drives both enhanced and impaired dwell time and target occupancy depending on spacing between specific targets.

Does protein dimerization always help targeting and dwell time on DNA? Not for a population! Dwell time is especially sensitive to spacing between DNA targets. Nonspecific binding and facilitated (1D) diffusion also play a key role. Super proud of Mankun Sang’s work!
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

The Natural Philosophy Symposium is underway! I had some idea of live-skeeting, but the real-time event is too absorbing.

www.naturalphilosophyhopkins.org/natural-phil...

Anyway, we've had:

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Can sensing of membrane receptors be switched on at tunable threshold densities, without active processing? Proud to share this preprint led by the awesome Dr Foley, please check it out!

Coarse-grained reaction-diffusion simulations! Idealized lattice models! Coat assembly phase diagrams! Stop on by for a theoretically fun time!

For any of my friends at the #APS Global Physics Summit, come to the Macromolecular Assembly in Cells II session today at 3pm to hear from me about how clathrin self-assembly is tuned to sense cargo receptors!