Scientific Tracks: Specialized Cell and Evolution, Physical Cell

Organizers: David Booth, University of California, San Francisco, Ben Larson, University of California, San Francisco, Guillermina Ramirez-San Juan, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Across the tree life, cells navigate constantly fluctuating environments with diverse and sophisticated forms, behaviors, and life histories. Inspired by the diversity of cells in their natural environment, the WILD, this subgroup will focus on the use of non-traditional systems and related technologies to address fundamental questions in cell biology and will dovetail with the theme of the keynote symposium to investigate the cell biology of organisms that may impact climate change. The diversity of perspectives and systems represented in this subgroup will expand the boundaries of cell biology by combining evolutionary, physical, and ecological research.

Scientific Tracks: Cellular Dynamics

Organizers: Beth Cimini, Broad Institute

Microscopy has always been a critical tool for understanding cellular dynamics. In the past several years, the number of deep learning software tools designed to interact with microscopy images has exploded, and deep learning has been applied to a number of interesting problems in microscopy, including image de-noising for allowing lower light exposure during timelapse movies, performing robust automatic segmentation, and classifying cells into classes without requiring a separate measurement step beforehand. With the dizzying array of new tools constantly being proposed, it can be exceedingly challenging to figure out what is appropriate for one's own work, and which tools can a given researcher run given their personal level of computational comfort and their access to computational resources.This subgroup will highlight the most exciting applications of deep learning to the microscopy of cellular dynamics, emphasizing tools that make it possible to probe previously-impossible questions. Particular emphasis will be given to tools that give users reusable workflows for training and/or usage, as well as tools which aim to improve user-friendliness. By highlighting such tools, we will help researchers at all comfort levels better incorporate deep learning into their own biological discoveries.

Scientific Tracks: Signaling and Metabolism, Physical Cell

Organizers: Bezia Lemma, Princeton University, Peter Foster, University of Southern California, Aastha Garde, Princeton University

Metabolism and the exchange of chemical energy are defining features of living systems, from single cells to complex organisms. How cells obtain, generate, and use energy is a dynamic process that varies in time and space. Technological advances have allowed researchers to image and measure the spatial and temporal variations of activity related to energy metabolism, providing new insights into how cells interact with their environment. We are now beginning to uncover how patterns in energy and metabolism interact with changes in gene expression, mechanical forces, and cellular behavior. This session will focus on our emerging understanding of spatiotemporal energy use and metabolism across length scales, from molecular energy turnover within cells to metabolic signaling in tissues.

Scientific Tracks: Cellular Dynamics, Signaling and Metabolism

Organizers: Tatsat Banerjee, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Peter Devreotes, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Tobias Meyer, Weill Cornell Medicine

In 1952, Alan Turing introduced the world to the theories of pattern formation. In the same year, Hodgkin and Huxley came up with the excitable network hypothesis to explain the action potential propagation in neurons. During past six decades, the concept that cellular processes are controlled by networks of interacting components has grown as a discipline and has shaped overall cell biology. With the advent of new microscopy techniques, synthetic biology tools, and sophisticated machine learning algorithms, nowadays feedback loops linking numerous genetic components are being identified at an increasing rate. We are beginning to learn how these complex feedback loops bring about the self-organizing patterns that regulate a wide array of processes such as cell migration, polarity, cytokinesis, endocytosis, cell cycle regulation, and differentiation. In this session, we plan to bring together experts in molecular cell biology, membrane biophysics, developmental biology, bioinformatics, and control theory to explore the feedback networks in several signal transduction and cytoskeletal systems and to learn how biological self-organization can orchestrate the spatiotemporal dynamics of various physiological processes. We will also focus on understanding how different chemical, mechanical, or electrical cues can influence the strengths of these autonomous networks to elicit dramatic phenotypic changes in broad range of systems, from single cell organisms to human stem cells.

Scientific Tracks: Physical Cell, Cellular Genome

Organizers: Yekaterina Miroshnikova, National Institutes of Health, Jan Lammerding, Cornell University, Verena Ruprecht, Centre de Regulació Genòmica

Tissues, cells and organelles sense and respond to a wide range of biochemical and biophysical aspects of their microenvironments. Mechanical force is one central environmental input that regulates cell behavior and fate. Cells have evolved a number of mechanisms to sense mechanical forces, and recent work implicates the nucleus itself as a mechanosensor, where forces directly or indirectly remodel nuclear shape and architecture, impact chromatin organization, and tune signaling pathways and global patterns of gene expression. This special interest subgroup will focus on the rapidly growing field of nuclear mechanotransduction and provide a forum to discuss the most recent advances in understanding the role of mechanical forces in modulating cellular decision-making and the role these processes play in fundamental cell biological processes such as cell migration, differentiation and malignant transformation. Thus, we will foster a unique, interdisciplinary community with a common focus on nuclear mechanobiology. We expect to be active in this field for the foreseeable future and are excited to work together with the ASCB and EMBO communities to promote the emerging field at the intersection of chromatin/nuclear biophysics and cell fate control.Importantly we aim to strongly align with ASCB’s strategic plan for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and will design our session to increase the visibility of diverse scientists by inviting scientists from underrepresented groups.

Scientific Tracks: Cellular Dynamics, Physical Cell

Organizers: Beata Mierzwa, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research & UC San Diego, Carsten Janke, Institut Curie, Francesca Bartolini, Columbia University

This Special Interest Subgroup aims to highlight the impact of artistic practices on scientific research and communication. In this session, scientists and artists will share their experiences in exploring this emerging field, discuss avenues to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration, and highlight its benefits to creative research and scientific exchange.In biology, great scientific advances have been made by scientists who used artistic techniques to represent their discoveries. Artistic representations can visualize time and scale in a manner that is easy for a viewer to appreciate, thus allowing them to conceptualize scientific research in an intuitive manner. Collaborations between scientists and artists can open up new avenues of scientific research by bolstering ideas and concepts, and allow scientists with highly specialized expertise to better communicate with peers in other domains. Beyond their impact on research, such collaborations create artistic works that can be highly valuable for scientific outreach, public engagement, and education, thereby giving new life to work that started as a research-oriented project. Following the successful first session of this Special Interest Subgroup in 2022, we are eager to organize a new session, in which speakers with diverse backgrounds and career stages will showcase how science and art can work together, and how fostering these interdisciplinary collaborations can have a broad impact on science, art, and society.

Scientific Tracks: Physical Cell, Cellular Dynamics

Organizers: Qin Ni, Johns Hopkins University, Sean Sun, Johns Hopkins University

Mammalian cells and tissues live in an aqueous environment where nutrients, ions, proteins, and cellular cytoplasmic constituents rely on water for transportation and distribution. To maintain optimal functionality, cells and tissues actively regulate their intracellular osmolytes and pressure in response to internal and external signals and perturbations. Variations in solute concentrations or pressure gradients across the cell membrane can induce water flux, consequently affecting cell surface movement, physiology, mechanics, and size. Recent research has demonstrated the importance of water dynamics and pressure regulation in biological processes and pathophysiology such as cell migration, tissue development and morphogenesis, and tumor growth. In this subgroup, we will showcase the latest breakthroughs in water dynamics and pressure regulation research at the cellular and tissue levels, focusing on motility, mechanics, and physiology. Our discussions will emphasize the fundamental principles underlying the emergence of cellular water dynamics and explore their implications in the fields of bioengineering and biomedicine. By bringing together experts and researchers from diverse backgrounds, we aim to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and inspire novel approaches to better understand and harness the power of water and pressure in cellular and tissue functions.