[Biofizika] [Ebsa] 1st Biology for Physics Conference: Is there new Physics in Living Matter? 15-18 January 2017, Barcelona, Spain

[Ilpo Vattulainen]

News associated with biophysics - supported by the European Biophysical Societies' Association (EBSA) - www.ebsa.org/

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Dear Researcher and Colleague,

It is our great pleasure to announce the workshop (http://www.bioforphys.org/) to be held in Barcelona on the 15th-18th January 2017 entitled ¨Biology for Physics: Is there new physics in living matter?¨. The workshop is organized under the auspices of the Division of Physics for Life Sciences from the European Physical Society, and will be held at the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB) on the beautiful Barcelona seashore.

Since the dawn of modern science, physics has developed the measurement tools for quantitative inquiry, and provided mathematical laws to describe and understand the world around us. In turn, physical methods have traditionally found fruitful applications in chemistry and biology. In the current century, it is not exaggerated to say that biology has been the fastest developing science, but it is also not less true that physics and chemistry contributions have been essential to make biology the quantitative science it is nowadays. However, despite all this progress, living matter has astonishing features that, when confronted to those of inanimate matter, make physicists suspect that they are missing something in their current understanding of the living. This leads us to pose the question: is there new physics in living matter?  

The workshop brings about 20 prominent scientists (http://www.bioforphys.org/invited-speakers-1) who have been working over the past years on several biologically motivated problems, have made outstanding contributions in their respective fields and for whom physics is an everyday source of inspiration to better understand biology. This workshop is a forum where recent scientific results are presented by our invitees but dressed in a way to convey the audience with a personal view on the aforementioned questions and to trigger discussion and reflection on it. The workshop will debate questions such as: Is physics just providing useful methods and tools for biology? Is biology just providing useful problems and paradigms for physical thinking? Or is there more to it? Is it reasonable to expect the advent of new physical laws or principles emerging from biological studies? Is biology going to unveil a deep nexus with physics one day, as chemistry already did a century ago? The contents of the workshop are organized under the umbrella of a few selected themes all sharing the underlying playground of nonequilibrium physics, which is at the core of living matter. Topics will include emergent properties in physical biology (from pattern formation to cellular differentiation), cell and tissue mechanics, morphogenesis, single molecule biophysics and stochastic thermodynamics, evolutionary physics, information theory and biology, among others.

In addition to the invited talks the workshop will have 8 oral contributions selected by the Organizing committee and the DPL scientific member board on the basis of scientific originality and interest, plus ample time devoted for poster exhibitions by participants and researchers to promote exchanges and interaction between them and our invited speakers. Moreover two prizes will be awarded to the best selected posters. The workshop is a great opportunity for young researchers who want to have a broad overview on the current most relevant topics in biophysics that are reshaping our way to understand the physical and biological world.  

We can only accept a limited number of participants to this event and therefore we encourage you to submit a poster contribution by November 20, 2016 at the latest (http://www.bioforphys.org/abstract-submission) or participate by registering (http://www.bioforphys.org/registration).

Contributions and participation will be accepted according to the order of registration until the maximum number of participants (about 150) is reached.

We look forward to seeing you in this exciting event with lots of science and stimulating discussions.

With kindest regards

Felix Ritort (DPL Chair, Universitat de Barcelona), Jaume Casademunt  (Universitat de Barcelona), Giovanni Dietler (EPFL, Lausanne), Pere Roca-Cusachs (IBEC, Barcelona), Melike Lakadamyali (ICFO, Barcelona)


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f.o. Patricia Helfenstein
European Physical Society
http://www.eps.org/
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1st Biology for Physics Conference: Is there new Physics in Living Matter?
15 - 18 January 2017, Barcelona, Spain
http://www.bioforphys.org

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