This week, I spoke with eight authors of Cell Press's most-cited biophysical sciences papers from the past year. I asked them to describe their research and why they think it's exciting—but with one caveat: they had to do it in five sentences or fewer. Were they up for the challenge? Read on to learn about their work, which ranges from exploring mechanisms in neurons to examining scar tissue in the heart and brain.

This post was written in preparation for the 2018 Biophysical Society Meeting, which takes place in San Francisco at the end of the month! Read until the end for more information on how to connect with Cell Press at the meeting.

Determining physical properties of the cell cortex

"In this paper, we combine thin film active gel theory with large-scale actomyosin laser ablation of the actomyosin cortex. We record the movement, opening kinetics, and regrowth of the cortex in response to a large laser cut. We use theory to find a best-fit match between theory and data and use this to determine the parameters in the theory that correspond to large-scale material properties of the cortical layer. We accurately describe the entire process of cortex opening and re-growing/re-sealing in response to a laser cut in numerical simulations and thus accurately capture both the physics of the cortical layer and cortex material parameters. Hence, combining laser ablation with theoretical analysis in the framework of active gel theory is a useful approach for determining physical properties of the cell cortex."

– Stephan Grill of Technische Universitӓt Dresden, co-author of Determining Physical Properties of the Cell Cortex by Saha et al., published in Biophysical Journal

Genome organization and the loop extrusion model

"We aimed to understand how the genome is organized and works, as a physical object: a bunch of exceedingly long polymers crumpled into a tiny volume of a cell nucleus. In this review, we summarized our understanding of how the physical nature of the genome can limit or facilitate interactions between different parts of the genome. We also highlighted a recently proposed loop extrusion model of chromosome folding and suggested that loop extrusion allows cells to facilitate and control interactions between functional genomic elements; for example, enhancers and promoters. To summarize, regions of the genome that are far apart cannot find each other, regions that are close need to be moderated—loop extrusion allows them to do this."

– Leonid Mirny of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, co-author of The 3D Genome as Moderator of Chromosomal Communication by Dekker and Mirny, published in Cell

Understanding the pentameric ligand-gated ion channel

"Our review focuses on understanding the fundamental structural mechanisms involved in pentameric ligand-gated ion channel (pLGIC) function. This family of receptors plays a major role in central nervous system signaling, and as such, the receptors are key targets for therapeutic treatment of neurological dysfunction and neurodegenerative disorders. Understanding their molecular mechanism of functioning is crucial for pharmacological advances. In our review, we highlight the major recent breakthroughs in structural resolution of human pLGICs and their prokaryotic homologs. We link these structural conformations to the functional understanding of the pLGIC family and propose a basic conserved mechanism of activation and desensitization between pLGICs, grouping resolved conformations to three distinct states (active-like, resting-like, and desensitized-like)."

– Pierre-Jean Corringer of the Institut Pasteur, co-author of Emerging Molecular Mechanisms of Signal Transduction in Pentameric Ligand-Gated Ion Channels by Nemecz et al., published in Neuron

The living scar—cardiac fibroblasts and the injured heart

"Among the challenges facing modern biophysics is the exploration of hetero-typic cell interactions in 'excitable' organs, such as heart and brain. In our focused review, we explore the highly dynamic nature of cardiac myocyte-nonmyocyte crosstalk that is essential for normal homeostasis and repair after myocardial injury. We focus specifically on the roles of non-canonical interactions beyond biochemical signaling, such as mechanical and electrical impulse transmission. A better understanding of the biophysics of cardiac repair, one that includes the contribution of nonmyocytes, will be essential for the development of novel therapies aimed at modifying cardiac scar properties to benefit patients."

– Peter Kohl of Imperial College London, co-author of The Living Scar – Cardiac Fibroblasts and the Injured Heart by Rog-Zielinska et al., published in Trends in Molecular Medicine

Changing the perception of amyloid aggregation

"Historically, amyloid aggregation has been largely associated with neurodegenerative disorders, like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. The pervasive view was that amyloid aggregates are inherently toxic and detrimental to normal cellular function. Perceptions are changing—our lab has recently uncovered a physiological and widespread stress-response pathway that rapidly and reversibly converts proteins into amyloid-like subnuclear structures called amyloid bodies. This adaptive response temporarily alters the activity of a large heterogeneous family of proteins, ultimately leading to a dormant cell phenotype that protects cells exposed to harsh environmental conditions. Overall, our work suggests that the amyloid fold may soon join the unfolded and native protein conformations as important and natural peptide states."

– Stephen Lee of the University of Miami, co-author of Adaptation to Stressors by Systemic Protein Amyloidogenesis by Audas et al., published in Developmental Cell

Testing focal cortical cooling

"We applied a cooling probe to the cortical surface of awake neurosurgery subjects to focally manipulate the function of individual brain regions to assess their role in speech production. Speech rate and quality could be modulated independently as a function of cooling Broca's region and the precentral gyrus, respectively. Our results suggest that the brain regions controlling speech sequencing and articulation are distinct, and they introduce focal cortical cooling as a new tool for human neuroscience."

– Michael A. Long of New York University, co-author of Functional Segregation of Cortical Regions Underlying Speech Timing and Articulation by Long et al., published in Neuron

The ball and chain of polyubiquitin structures

"We have been working for several years on a deubiquitinating enzyme, ataxin-3, which has an important role in the proteasome pathway and is responsible for the neurodegenerative disease spinocerebellar ataxia type 3. We have reviewed the knowledge accumulated over the past several years about the functions and structural features of polyubiquitin (polyUb) chains. This analysis reveals the need to understand further the functional role of some of the linkages and the structural code that determines recognition of polyUbs by protein partners."

– Annalisa Pastore of King's College London, co-author of The Ball and Chain of Polyubiquitin Structures by Alfano et al., published in Trends in Biochemical Sciences

Asking important questions about neuron spikes

"Most neurons transmit signals by generating spikes in their axon, and this is the primary means by which neurons relay information to one another. How does a neuron ensure that spikes reliably reach their targets? This is an important question because the dendrites of many neurons generate large and slow electrical signals that can passively invade the axon and interfere with spike transmission, thus reducing the amount of information relayed. We find that K+ channels in the axon of hippocampus neurons can dampen large and slow electrical signals from the dendrites while nevertheless allowing for fast spikes to propagate. This ensures information is relayed even under conditions that might interfere with spike transmission. Two recent studies report similar phenomena in neurons of the cerebellum (Rowan and Christie, Cell Reports 2017) and retina (Milner and Do, Cell 2017), arguing that this may be a general operation of neurons."

– Pierre Apostolides of Janelia Research Campus, co-author of Axonal Filtering Allows Reliable Output during Dendritic Plateau-Driven Complex Spiking in CA1 Neurons by Apostolides et al., published in Neuron

If you are going to the 2018 Biophysical Society Meeting, visit Cell Press at Booth 200! There, you can hear more about our journal offerings, get exclusive BPS materials, and participate in Meet the Editors sessions. Otherwise, take part in the conversation on Twitter using #BPS18. Either way, we look forward to seeing and hearing from you in February!