Biophysical reviews最新文献

British biophysics has a tradition of scientific invention and innovation, resulting in new technologies transforming biological insight, such as rapid DNA sequencing, super-resolution and label-free microscopy, high-throughput and single-molecule bio-sensing, and bio-inspired synthetic materials. Some advances were established through democratised platforms and many have biomedical success, a key example involving the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, three UK labs made crucial contributions revealing how the spike protein targets human cells and how therapies of vaccines and neutralising nanobodies work, enabled largely through biophysical innovations of cryo-electron microscopy. Here, we discuss leading-edge innovations which resulted from discovery-led British "Physics of Life" research (capturing blends of physical-life sciences research in the UK including biophysics and biological physics) and have matured into wide-reaching sustainable commercial ventures enabling translational impact. We describe the biophysical science which led to these academic spinouts, presenting the scientific questions that were addressed through innovating new techniques and approaches. We consider these examples through the lens of opportunities and challenges for academic biophysics research in partnership with British industry. We highlight how commercial breakthroughs have emerged organically from fundamental research rather than from technology-first approaches but also discuss lessons to learn from past failures. Finally, we propose recommendations concerning future resourcing and structuring of UK biophysics research and the training and support of its researchers to ensure that UK plc punches above its weight in biophysics innovation and a need to educate the policymakers and public that an absence of basic science impoverishes innovation.

Serum albumin is the most abundant protein found in human and mammalian blood plasma. It plays a crucial role in the transport and delivery of various molecules, including drugs. The affinity of small molecule drugs to albumin affects their ADME properties and overall efficacy. Hence, predictive models for albumin-ligand binding constants are of interest for computer-aided drug design. Due to the vast number of potential binding modes to albumin, the application of structure-based approaches relying on calculations of the binding free energy is challenging, while ligand-based QSAR and machine learning approaches can be trained to achieve rather good performance even for structurally diverse molecule sets. We consider the existing albumin affinity datasets and the numerous models designed to predict the affinity, which are based on various machine learning techniques and use different types of molecular descriptors. The transferability of the models to plasma protein binding values is discussed.

Hydrostatic pressure (HP) has long been used to perturb protein and membrane structures and to alter their interactions with binding partners in a fully reversible manner. HP has also long been used to perturb molecular structures in living cells, where it can alter cytoskeleton dynamics and cellular signalling pathways and to stall cell division in a wide variety of cell types. HP can be applied and removed in a fraction of a second and is transmitted through tissue at the speed of sound; thus, rapid changes in HP can be very useful to correlate the behaviour of isolated macromolecules with the same molecules within living cells. Despite its usefulness, HP has not found wide use among researchers, mainly because of the need for specialist equipment. This largely reflects the use of high HP (≥ 1000 atmospheres) by the majority of practitioners. While these high pressures have provided insights into protein denaturation, membrane reorganisation, and sterilisation of bacteria and viruses in medicine and food, here we will focus on the uses of moderate HP (< 200 atmospheres) where the engineering and safety issues are less significant. At these lower pressures, HP alters the water shells at molecular interfaces. We outline here the background of the methods used and some of the simple adaptations required to laboratory equipment to allow HP studies and give some examples of its use for studying isolated proteins and the same proteins in living cells.

The review focuses on biomimetic approach to the designing multifunctional nanosystems and their application in modern nanotechnology, particularly in the fields of nanomedicine, enzymology, catalysis, and drug delivery. The throughline integrating the chapters of the review is the family of amphiphilic compounds, including surfactants, macrocycles, and mixed compositions. These are very attractive building blocks due to their ability to cooperative or stoichiometric noncovalent interactions with the formation of smart supramolecular assemblies responsive to external stimulus, demonstrating tunable structural and functional behavior. Special attention is devoted to mixed micellar systems, metallosurfactants and macrocycles of different classes, including cyclodextrins, calixarenes, cucurbiturils, pillararenes. These amphiphilic assemblies are widely used as micellar nanocontainers for drug solubilization, biomimetic nanocatalysts for hydrolysis and oxidation-reduction reactions, and artificial ion channels. Amphiphilic molecules, due to their structural similarity to lipid molecules, can integrate with lipid membranes, modifying their properties. This makes amphiphiles important for developing drug delivery systems that have improved bioavailability, stability, prolonged circulation time, and the ability to overcome biological barriers, ultimately improving the effectiveness of pharmacotherapy.

This editorial describes an open the call for nominations to the 2026 Michéle Auger Award for Young Scientists' Independent Research-the single award administered by Biophysical Reviews.

Biomolecular condensates are increasingly recognized as central regulators of numerous cellular processes. The bulk rheology of condensates (e.g., viscoelasticity) balances molecular mobility with structural stability, while the interfacial properties of condensates (e.g., interfacial tension) regulate condensate growth and their interactions with other cellular structures. Here, we review the functional roles of condensate rheology and interfacial properties, as well as diseases associated with their dysregulation. By summarizing emerging methodologies and quantitative measurements of condensate viscoelasticity and interfacial tension in the literature, we highlight key regulators of condensate material properties and discuss their implications in biology.

This Editorial introduces the contents of Volume 17, Issue 3 of Biophysical Reviews, the official journal of the International Union for Pure and Applied Biophysics (IUPAB). This Issue contains 14 contributions. The broad scope of the articles and the geographically widespread locations of the contributing authors mirror the goals of IUPAB, namely to organize worldwide advancements, cooperation, communication, and education in biophysics.

The purpose of this review is to describe the development of the Surface Electrogenic Event Reader (SURFE²R) instrument, from the discovery of its fundamental underlying principle of capacitive coupling of biological membranes in the late 1970s to the present-day commercial instrument, which since 2012 has been marketed by the company Nanion Technologies. The story of the SURFE²R's development is a prime example of the transfer of a concept from fundamental research into a commercial product for the benefit of society. The capacitive coupling detection method was first recognized and used in research into the reaction mechanism of the proton pump bacteriorhodopsin from purple membrane fragments of a Halobacterium. The modern instrument now has a much wider application to research on the mechanisms of pumps and transporters in general, in the screening of drugs targeting pumps and transporters, and in quantifying drug affinity to biological membranes. The instrument is, therefore, of potential interest to researchers in both academia and the pharmaceutical industry. Because the author has worked and interacted with most, if not all, of the scientists involved in the evolution of the SURFE²R, the article also provides personal insights into the lives and careers of the leading scientists involved: Peter Läuger, Ernst Bamberg, Klaus Fendler, Thiemo Gropp and Niels Fertig.

With the rise of generative artificial intelligence, previous barriers to producing written content in the form of papers and grants are decreasing, resulting in a rapid rise in the level of submitted material. This opinion piece first describes a number of already existing structural problems within current scientific research practice that relate to publication output, managerial science styles, and the operation of national granting systems that are especially susceptible to further exploitation with the use of an artificial intelligence-based writing assistant. It then proceeds to offer a number of recommendations that may help to fix these problems, thereby creating better working environments and higher quality research output.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12551-025-01324-8.

Controlled protein assembly and protein crystal engineering are routes to new types of biomaterials. In this review, we examine how crystal engineering concepts, including polymorph searching, molecular tectonics and supramolecular synthons, can be adapted and applied in protein-based systems. We explore 'mix-and-match' approaches, as established with modular frameworks that combine interchangeable components. We review the numerous current methodologies in protein assembly and crystal engineering from (de novo) designed proteins to metal-mediated or ligand-mediated strategies. Commercially available synthetic receptors such as macrocycles are useful protein assembly mediators and are advantageous in their applicability to diverse protein targets. We highlight the use of calixarenes, cucurbiturils and proteins as building blocks (tectons), showing that reproducible inter-tecton structural units (synthons) have applications in directing protein assembly and crystal engineering.