“To me, biophysics and bioengineering are about precision measurement and precision engineering,” explained Taekjip Ha, a biophysicist and co-director of the Center for the Physics of Living Cells (CPLC) at Illinois. “At the basic science level, the types of questions you can ask are determined by the precision of your measurements. It’s the same for bioengineering. You want to be able to manipulate molecules, biological systems, and entire organisms precisely.”
Recognized for its strengths in biological computation and fluorescence spectroscopy, the group has grown significantly in the last few years as a result of some faculty crossover from condensed matter, and new members recruited in strategically important areas.
In addition to supporting new collaborative research directions for faculty, the CPLC also works to advance the teaching of biological physics in both physics and biological communities.
“Through our CPLC summer school and Graduate Student Exchange programs, we are working create a global network of young scientists specializing in the physics of living systems,“ Ha added.
“Our summer program is recognized among the international biological physics community as an excellent venue for upper-level researchers to gain hands-on, intensive training in cutting-edge experimental single-molecule, live-cell, and computational and theoretical biophysics,” comments Jaya Yodh, CPLC’s director of education and outreach. The Center is also establishing educational programs with local secondary schools and community groups that incorporate biophysically-based computational and experimental tools into middle and high school curriculum.
Schulten also founded the Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group at the Beckman Institute. Its investigations—in collaboration with experimental laboratories in universities, research institutions, and industry across the U.S. and around the world—explore the physical mechanisms underlying the transformation of light energy into electrical membrane potentials and the synthesis of ATP in photosynthetic systems, as well as the storage and control of genetic information in living cells.
Supported by the National Institutes of Health, the NSF, and other federal and private agencies, the TCBG's multidisciplinary team is engaged in the modeling of large macromolecular systems in realistic environments, and has produced ground-breaking insights into biomolecular processes coupled with mechanical force, bioelectronic processes in metabolism and vision, and with the function and mechanism of membrane proteins. One group of researchers has formulated a unique paradigm for sensing DNA molecules by threading them through an electrically active solid-state nanopore device containing a constricted graphene layer. Other group members have determined the structure of the HIV capsid and the rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus.