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Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara

During animal and plant development, cells self-organize into complex organisms, through the gradual refinement of cellular identities and their arrangement in space. This is an iterative process, which progresses through successive rounds of symmetry breaking, accompanied by changes in molecular and mechanical properties that feed back across multiple scales. Many of the elementary processes underlying developmental patterning and morphogenesis are now well documented, and a growing array of tools is available to observe and manipulate their dynamics. Yet, we lack a set of general principles that explain how they are coordinated in space and time to produce a defined outcome, and comprehensive synthetic approaches that use such principles to recapitulate development in vitro. This program will bring together experimentalists and theoreticians to work towards an integrated view of self-organization. This requires that we examine how the collective dynamics of development emerge from individual cellular behaviors - how cellular decisions in high-dimensional gene expression landscapes are coordinated in patterning, and how cellular force generation and mechanical feedbacks provide a substrate for tissue-scale communication and morphogenesis. Unifying these different processes, the notion of information may provide a common currency for the molecular and mechanical cues that guide development, encouraging us to consider that information is not only conveyed and interpreted but also self-organizes.

morphogenesis, development, plant development, self-organization, theory, quantitative biology, biophysics

Systems Biology and Computational Biology,    Biology

BPS - The Biophysical Society

A vast number of biologically important enzymes, transporters, and other molecules require the participation or transport of protons. Because the proton is unique in many respects, its properties and reactions are often quite distinct from those of other ions. Our goal is to include a truly international spectrum of speakers and attendees. The invited speakers include chemists, structural biologists, and physiologists whose expertise encompasses a wide range of topics that are all related to the proton. We hope to encourage new understandings on levels from basic science to biomedical applications.

The field of implant materials is now moving from static concepts to dynamic biomaterials that can adapt to stimuli from the living environment. It is an exciting time for biomaterial research. The same is true for robotics, as soft actuated and responsive materials pave the way for the rapidly emerging field of “soft robotics”, from the nano- to the macroscale. The 9th International Conference on Mechanics of Biomaterials and Tissues provides a unique international forum for researchers and practicing engineers from different disciplines to interact and exchange their latest results.

BPS - The Biophysical Society

BPS - The Biophysical Society