Highlights
Participation
in XIV International Biophysics Congress
Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA
April 27 to May 1,2002
The 14th International Biophysics Congress (I.B.C.) which was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina during April
27 to May 1,2002 required much more preparedness than the participation in the 13th I.B.C. in New Delhi, INDIA during Sept.1999
for the intended POSTER presentation. After the initial registration on 01/10/2001 till the conclusion of the presentation
of POSTER at Buenos Aires on the 30th April 2002, all through, it required an alertness and far-reaching outlooks while attending
to the electronic mail messages & digital publishing requirements for uploading ABSTRACTS and the email submission of
Registration Forms and Fellowship Forms etc., which is rather probably too much to expect from being in Shillong, at North
eastern Hill University. That it has become possible for at least one participant to reach the venue and present the poster
has been more to do with the cordiality of approach from the organizers even while handling the entire processing through
the programmed electronic media which would otherwise appear to an inexperienced aspirant a formidably regimented procedure.
The topics covered (as listed in the categories list,
the next sheet) in the biophysics congress covered the entire range of research area in biology and biochemistry as well .The
reported results were providing information to front line researchers, in the several fields, who have an outlook on applications.
The exposure on the current trends
of X-ray structure determination at higher resolution (2.5 & 5.5 A° as quoted) did reveal the ease with which the results can be presented for comprehending
the high molecular weight (several Kilo Daltons) macro- molecular structures - as easy as one can visualize a closed-fist
from photographs. What is familiar to a chemist while handling low molecular weight small molecules is all the same but the
increase in size and dimension requires much better familiarity with mathematical and computational techniques with increased
contents from the subjects in physics.
There were a lot of techniques, which can be appreciated
from the presentations, which indicated how the electronic media can be effectively brought into use in the classroom teaching
without having to compromise on the requirements on the part of the students to be able to present the materials compactly
and precisely in the few-hours examinations.
The topics covered and the contents delivered, overall
from the point of view of even a non-specialist in Biophysics, are important and relevant which open-up new approaches for
applications and novel methods to handle complicated Biophysical/Biochemical means to find added relevance for a given line
of research investigation.
The membrane protein modifications by chemical choices
and the details of the hairpin forming conditions for the folding-unfolding of proteins and the related studies have been
reported which indicates that a great deal yet can be following in spite of the fact that it appears already at a very much
understood and controllable stage.
The enclosures herewith are a few sheets highlighting
these types of contributions at the 14th International Biophysics Congress, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
COMMENTS
PL2 "The Recent Excitement in Ribosome Crystallography"
appealed from the point of view of my experiences with crystal structure of small molecules because of the extent to which
the details are revealed in such macromolecules in the 2.5 Aš resolution regim.
This was reinforced at the SYMPOSIUM 21 "Ribosomes Structure
and Function" and in the S21-3 and S21-4 the way the speakers tried to depict the conformational changes at
the Ribosome units at the various cavities particularly due to the entry of the Antibiotic molecules reveled not only recent
research results but also have effectively used the computer graphics and animation techniques to remind a typical class room
lecture even for that short duration.
This is usefully grasped from the point of view of "Teaching
Biophysics" as much as the novel topics dealt in the Symposium 19 "Signal Transduction in Sensory Systems". Particular
mention must be made of S19-2 "Mechanics of Hearing:Modulation by Calcium Mobilizing Pathways".
I did benefit significantly from the expositions at
Symposium 02 "Membrane Structure,Dynamics and Assembly"
PL-3 " Prediction of Protein Structure by Ab Initio Global Optimization of Potential Energy" is actually
the present sate of the art of the early days efforts by A.I. Kitaigorodski with the small molecules and some of the forms
of the potential functions could be very similar to the "Universal Atom-Atom" potentials used- more so because of the information
provided during the discussion for the possibility of inclusion of "polarization" and the replies seem to indicate it is all
a hard-sphere atom models with ab initio formalisms and these are precisely the way the classical potential forms were generated
for the small molecules.
My experiences with the above types of calculations
are indicated in the reference as can be found in : Web Site http://saravamudhan.tripod.com page 12 of the site entitled "About the Author.." listed reference item 7 under "List of
Contribution/Publication" which is essentially a "Wideline and High Resolution PMR Study in Single Crystals of Malonic Acid". There have also been recent review articles in ACCOUNTS OF CHEMICAL
RESEARCH on the predictability of Crystal Structures. Post 06-02 ( POST 06 Proteomics and Genomics)at Board:150
on the "Nonplanarity of Peptide Groups in Protein Structures" did have a similar posssibilty to be explored by calculations
and look for the energy stabilizations which could arise by near atom interactions causing this strain (deviation).
Symposium16 Biophysical Medicine II had two presentations S16-2 and S16-3 which are on the tedius
but inevitably needed efforts in the "Biomedical Health-Statistics" where in , the way the sampling can be done (which must
be done) with the process of treating the patients to cure them , and the hard realities associated with the results and analysis
was meticulously displayed.
Symposium 26 "New Materials and Nano Mechanics" had a few surprises for the material I had displayed in Post 22-01 Board:45
. Some of the experimental studies by NMR methods for the "membrane transports" are being done with glass beads which provide
a model situation to study induced field distributions and the kind of efforts as was experimented in S26-3 could be
a better substitutes, and in the Web Site http://saravamudhan.tripod.com on the page 8 of the site entitled "Any Spill Overs From or To the Nanostructures in Materials"
I have raised the possibilities. I had also gained added informations on this aspect during the recent "WORKSHOP ON ADVANCED
MATERIALS" which I attended in INDIA prior to my paticipation in the 14th IBC at Buenos Aires----S.Aravamudhan,Lecturer
in Chemistry,North Eastern Hill University, Shillong,793022,Meghalaya,INDIA.
