Thanks! to:Paul HicksonScott StubbsJeff YoungJanis McKennaOliva dela Cruz-CorderoCarlotta SpinoThe grad tour guides, including Jake Bobowski and Lara Thompson

You for coming!

Biophysics

Biophysics (also biological physics) is an interdisciplinary sciencethat applies the theories and methods of physics, to questions of biology.

Wolfgang E. Pauli:“Festkörperphysik ist eine Schmutzphysik.”

“Condensed matter physics is the physics of dirt.”

“Physics-envy is the curse of biology”-- Joel Cohen (population biologist)

The dynamics of life

AND

BND

What quantity can tell us how far a structure is from folded?

Should be a geometrical quantity depending only on the 2 structures considered.

We generalize the treatment of distance between points to find the distance between any two space curves.

22 2

0 0

[ , ]L T

Nambu GotoS s t ds dt r r r r r

s

r

r

Applications to proteins.Structures with

, MIN MAXD D

Gastrulation ina fly embryo

Why is our head at the anterior? (meaningless)Why is our heart on the left? (meaningful)

Turing (1952), Morphogenesis:

Laws of physics E & M are LR symmetricThe initial distribution of embryos is LR symmetricThe distribution of fluctuations is LR symmetric

why not 50/50?

Amino acids are chiral!Microscopic chirality macroscopic handedness

UBC Engineering Physics

Forensic DNA analysis

We invented a way to find as few as 10 molecules of DNA in a glass of water!

Applications: forensics, water safety, cancer detection

Andre Marziali

Carl Michal – Solid-State NMR of biological materials

Structure-properties-function relationships

Q

Spider silk

Sea-snail (whelk) egg capsule Hagfish slime threads

Why study biophysics?

• Interesting science questions, interesting systems• Quantitative tools (analytical and computational)

are necessary for solutions, bio is becoming more quantitative.

• Active and relatively new area of research with much opportunity.

• Significant and growing interest in the field.

Fusion of HIV virus w a cell