The 60th Anniversary Meeting of the British Biophysical Society goes virtual

The British Biophysical Society Biennial meeting is the largest national meeting of the UK biophysics community and this edition is particularly special as it celebrates the 60th Anniversary of the creation of the society. ‘Biophysics through time and space: The BBS@60’ will be on ZOOM 14-17 September 2020.

Invited Speakers

• Venki Ramakrishnan, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge.
• Dave Stuart, University of Oxford.
• Richard Henderson FRS, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge.
• Banafshe Larijani, University of Bath.
• Perdita Barran, University of Manchester.
• Allen Orville, Diamond Light Source, Harwell.
• Amanda Wright, University of Nottingham.
• Tim Knowles, University of Birmingham.
• Tom Clarke, University of East Anglia.
• David Brockwell, University of Leeds.
• Mike Fried, University of Kentucky.
• Ben Luisi, University of Cambridge.
• Peter Crowley, NUI Galway, Ireland.
• Corinne Smith, University of Warwick
• Alison Rodger, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
• Marcello Nollmann, CNRS, Montpellier, France.
• Phil Biggin, University of Oxford.
• Tony Watts, University of Oxford.

Guest book

We would like to create a record of this historical occasion and would be delighted if you would contribute to our Guest Book. Please note that this is a public document, your details are not protected. Please sign and be as creative as you like. Thanks!

60 Years of British biophysics

The British Biophysical Society (BBS) is 60 years old this year. We are celebrating with this 60th Anniversary Meeting, the inauguration of a new prize (the BBS Kendrew Doctoral Thesis Prize) and an updated history of our roots and progress as a learned society.

Twitter

Please use the hashtag #BBS60 and help us publicise this meeting.

Programme

You can download a copy of the final programme here.

MONDAY 14th Sept

Morning Satellite Meeting Bacterial cell envelopes: structure, dynamics, function

Chair: Claire Friel (U.Nottingham) & Ann Dixon (U. Warwick)
2:00 pm Intro: Olwyn Byron (U.Glasgow)
2:05 pm KEYNOTE: David Brockwell (U.Leeds)
Structure in unstructured proteins – the role of flanking regions in alpha-synuclein aggregation.
2:50 pm Tony Watts (U.Oxford)
Linking dynamics to function in membrane proteins - high resolution crystallography, AFM, NMR.
3:20 pm Break
3:30 pm The BBS Kendrew Doctoral Thesis Prize Lecture. Daniel Hurdiss (Utrecht University)
A belt and braces: different strategies to inhibit a haemorrhagic conjunctivitis virus.
4:00 pm Ben Luisi (U.Cambridge)
The dynamic machinery of bacterial riboregulation.
4:30 pm Elevated Poster Talk: Conrado Pedebos (U. Southampton)
The hitchhiker’s guide to the periplasm: unexpected molecular interactions of antibiotics in E. coli.
4:45 pm Elevated Poster Talk: Giulia Paci (UCL)
Deciphering large cargo transport through the nuclear pore complex.
5:00 pm Virtual Poster Session and Flash Talks
6:00 pm Finish

TUESDAY 15th Sept

Chairs: Tharin Blumenschein (UEA) & Ann Dixon (U. Warwick)
2:00 pm KEYNOTE: Mike Fried (U.Kentucky)
Quaternary interactions and DNA twist modulate the cooperative binding of AGT.
2:50 pm Corinne Smith (U.Warwick)
Clathrin - the molecular shape shifter - explored using high resolution cryo-EM.
3:20 pm Break
3:30 pm Venki Ramakrishnan (LMB Cambridge)
Using cryo-EM to understand how eukaryotic ribosomes initiate translation.
4:15 pm Marcello Nollmann (CNRS)
Through the looking-glass: does DNA structure determine transcriptional activity?
4:45 pm Tom Clarke (UEA)
Structural modelling of biological nanowires: from low to high resolution.
5:15 pm Break
5:30 pm Virtual Poster Session and Flash Talks
6:30 pm Finish

WEDNESDAY 16th Sept

Chair: Olwyn Byron (U. Glasgow)
2:00 pm KEYNOTE: Richard Henderson (LMB Cambridge)
Electron microscopy and cryomicroscopy: BBS@60.
2:45 pm Bert de Groot (Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen)
The molecular dynamics of potassium channel permeation, selectivity and gating.
3:15 pm Break
3:30 pm Peter Crowley (NUI. Galway)
Macrocycle-mediated protein frameworks.
4:00 pm Perdita Barran (U. Manchester)
Measuring conformational distributions of disordered proteins and the influence of charge on form and function.
4:30 pm The BBS Louise Johnson Early Career Award Lecture: Séamus Holden (U. Newcastle)
How do you build a wall? Using advanced optical microscopy to understand how protein bionanomachines remodel the bacterial cell envelope.
5:00 pm Banafshe Larijani (U. Bath)
Oncoprotein activation and dynamics in cancer- A quantitative imaging approach.
5:30 pm End of session
6:00 pm Finish

THURSDAY 17th Sept

Morning Satellite Meeting Bacterial cell envelopes: structure, dynamics, function

Chair: John Sanderson (U.Durham)
2:00 pm KEYNOTE: Alison Rodger (U. Macquarie)
Attenuated total reflectance infra-red spectroscopy for proteins: innovation @60.
2:45 pm Allen Orville (Diamond Light Source)
Time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography of O2 dependent reactions by metalloenzymes.
3:15 pm The Sosei Heptares Prize for Biophysics Lecture: John Christodoulou (University College London, Birkbeck College London, and The Francis Crick Institute)
Protein folding on the ribosome.
3:45 pm Amanda Wright (U. Nottingham)
Imaging and sensing the micro-environment of cells in 4D.
4:15 pm Break
COVID SESSION
Chair: Rob Gilbert (U.Oxford)
4:30 pm Dave Stuart (U.Oxford/Diamond Light Source)
TBC.
5:00 pm John Briggs (LMB, Cambridge)
Structures of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein on intact virions.
5:30 pm Peijun Zhang (eBIC/Diamond Light Source)
Multi-scale imaging of SARS-CoV-2 with electrons.
6:00 pm Closing remarks: Olwyn Byron (U. Glasgow)
6:20 pm Finish

Registration

Registration is OPEN.

Conference Fees

The conference is FREE to all. Please consider joining the BBS as part of your participation.

Abstract Submission

Submit your poster abstracts here. Abstract submission deadline 14 August 2020.

Poster Sessions

All posters for the meeting are on our tumblr site. The password will be shared during the meeting.

Flash Talks

You can download a copy of the running order for Monday and Tuesday flash poster sessions here.

Meeting Sponsors

The 2020 Biennial BBS meeting is kindly sponsored by the following organisations. Please get in touch if you would like to support this event.

Satellite Meetings

Bacterial cell envelopes: structure, dynamics, function.

A sattelite focusing on bacterial membranes organised by Syma Khalid will run on the 14th and 17th September.

Confirmed Speakers:

• Wonpil Im (Lehigh, USA)
• Anna Duncan (Oxford, UK)
• Bert van den Berg (Newcastle, UK)
• Morgan Beeby (Imperial College, UK)
• Tanmay Bharat (Oxford, UK)
• Shu-Sin Chng (National University Singapore) Keynote:
• Sheena Radford (Leeds, UK)

Collaborative Computer Project on Small Angle Scattering.

A software training workshop and seminars. Running Friday 18th September (UK time). Program and registration here.

Refeyn Webinar.

Refeyn will host two talks on 15th Sept 10-12 am. A brief 25 minute introduction to mass photometry including its applications, followed by a Refeyn customer presentation. Register here.

• James Wilkinson – Mass photometry, a new method to study biomolecular interactions.
• Luca Schulz from the lab of Georg Hochberg - Evolution of RubisCO’s interaction with and dependence on the small subunit