Outline of biophysics

Last updated July 31, 2024

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to biophysics:

Nature of biophysics
Biophysics is
Scope of biophysics research
Biophysics research overlaps with
Branches of biophysics
Biophysical techniques
Applications
Biophysical structures and phenomena
In molecular biophysics
In cellular biophysics
Biophysics organizations
Biophysics publications
Persons influential in biophysics
See also
References
External links

Biophysics – interdisciplinary science that uses the methods of physics to study biological systems.^[1]

Nature of biophysics

Biophysics is

An academic discipline – branch of knowledge that is taught and researched at the college or university level. Disciplines are defined (in part), and recognized by the academic journals in which research is published, and the learned societies and academic departments or faculties to which their practitioners belong.
A scientific field (a branch of science) – widely recognized category of specialized expertise within science, and typically embodies its own terminology and nomenclature. Such a field will usually be represented by one or more scientific journals, where peer-reviewed research is published.
- A natural science – one that seeks to elucidate the rules that govern the natural world using empirical and scientific methods.
  - A biological science – concerned with the study of living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy.
  - A branch of physics – concerned with the study of matter and its motion through space and time, along with related concepts such as energy and force.
An interdisciplinary field – field of science that overlaps with other sciences

Scope of biophysics research

Biomolecular scale
- Biomolecule
- Biomolecular structure
Organismal scale
Environmental scale
- Biophysical environment

Biophysics research overlaps with

Branches of biophysics

Astrobiophysics – field of intersection between astrophysics and biophysics concerned with the influence of the astrophysical phenomena upon life on planet Earth or some other planet in general.
Medical biophysics – interdisciplinary field that applies methods and concepts from physics to medicine or healthcare, ranging from radiology to microscopy and nanomedicine. See also, medical physics.
- Clinical biophysics – studies the process and effects of non-ionizing physical energies utilized for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.^[2]^[3]
Membrane biophysics – study of biological membranes using physical, computational, mathematical, and biophysical methods.
Molecular biophysics – interdisciplinary field that applies methods and concepts from physics, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and biology^[4] to understand biomolecular systems and explain biological function in terms of molecular structure, structural organization, and dynamic behaviour at various levels of complexity, from single molecules to supramolecular structures, viruses and small living systems.

Biophysical techniques

Scientist using a stereo microscope outfitted with a digital imaging pick-up Manusingmicroscope.jpg — Scientist using a stereo microscope outfitted with a digital imaging pick-up

Biophysical techniques– methods used for gaining information about biological systems on an atomic or molecular level. They overlap with methods from many other branches of science.

Biophotonics – combination of biology and photonics, with photonics being the science and technology of generation, manipulation, and detection of photons, quantum units of light. Biophotonics can also be described as the "development and application of optical techniques, particularly imaging, to the study of biological molecules, cells and tissue". One of the main benefits of using optical techniques which make up biophotonics is that they preserve the integrity of the biological cells being examined.
Calcium imaging – various optical techniques for recording the location and concentration of calcium. Typically this is done in cell and tissue samples using either genetically encoded or chemically derived fluorescent calcium indicating dyes.
Calorimetry –
- Isothermal Titration Calorimetry (ITC) – measures the heat effects caused by interactions.
Chromatography – various techniques from this field are used for the purification and analysis of biological molecules
Circular Dichroism – method to measure chirality of a sample using circularly polarized light. This technique is commonly used to determine protein structure.
Computational chemistry – use of numerical methods to probe the structure and dynamical equilibrium in biological systems.
Cryobiology – studies the effects of low temperatures on living things
Dual Polarisation Interferometry – analytical technique used to measure the real-time conformation and activity of a wide range of biomolecules and their interactions.
Electron microscopy – used to gain high-resolution images of subcellular structures and proteins.
Electrophysiology – studies electrical properties of cell membranes and provide functional data, often related to systematic changes in structure.
- Patch clamping – provides temporal and electrical information of a cell, or a portion of membrane. Typically this provides data on electrogenic processes, such ion channel or transporter activity.
Fluorescence spectroscopy – for detecting structural rearrangements, as well as interactions of biomolecules. See also, Fluorescence .
Force spectroscopy – probes the mechanical properties of individual molecules or macromolecular assemblies using small flexible cantilevers, focused laser light, or magnetic fields.
Gel electrophoresis – determines the mass, the charge and the interactions of biological molecules
Imaging – scientific imaging of biological materials, usually by some form of microscopy, or sometimes indirectly such as in x-ray crystallography or by computer imaging; at a wide range of magnifications to see macromolecules, cells, tissues, or organisms
Mass spectrometry – technique that gives the molecular mass with great accuracy.
Microscale Thermophoresis (MST) – method to measure binding affinities, enzymatic activities, changes in molecule conformation and changes in size, charge or hydration entropy.
Microscopy – used in many ways, for example, to enable the use of laser instruments for scanning and transmission.
- Atomic force microscopy –
Neuroimaging –
Neutron spin echo spectroscopy –
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy – method for measuring the local environment of atomic nuclei within a sample. Can be used to derive both structural and kinetic information on proteins and small molecules.
- Protein NMR spectroscopy – provides information about the exact structure of biological molecules, as well as on dynamics
Optical tweezers and magnetic tweezers – allow for the manipulation of single molecules, providing information about DNA and its interaction with proteins and molecular motors, such as Helicase and RNA polymerase.
Rheology and Microrheology
Single molecule spectroscopy – is a technique that is sensitive enough to detect single molecules and often incorporates fluorescence detection.
Small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) – technique that gives a rough low resolution molecular structure.
Spectrophotometry – measurement of the transmission of light through different solutions or substances at different wavelengths of light.
- Colorimetry –
Spectroscopy and Circular dichroism – method for detecting chiral groups in molecules, especially to determine the secondary structure of proteins
Ultracentrifugation – gives information on the shape and mass of molecules
X-ray crystallography – method to determine the exact structure of molecules with atomic resolution

Applications

Biophysical profile

Biophysical structures and phenomena

In molecular biophysics

In cellular biophysics

Biophysics organizations

Biophysics publications

Persons influential in biophysics

List of biophysicists

Related Research Articles

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Structural biology, as defined by the Journal of Structural Biology, deals with structural analysis of living material at every level of organization.

Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations. Biophysical research shares significant overlap with biochemistry, molecular biology, physical chemistry, physiology, nanotechnology, bioengineering, computational biology, biomechanics, developmental biology and systems biology.

Force spectroscopy is a set of techniques for the study of the interactions and the binding forces between individual molecules. These methods can be used to measure the mechanical properties of single polymer molecules or proteins, or individual chemical bonds. The name "force spectroscopy", although widely used in the scientific community, is somewhat misleading, because there is no true matter-radiation interaction.

In molecular biology and biotechnology, a fluorescent tag, also known as a fluorescent label or fluorescent probe, is a molecule that is attached chemically to aid in the detection of a biomolecule such as a protein, antibody, or amino acid. Generally, fluorescent tagging, or labeling, uses a reactive derivative of a fluorescent molecule known as a fluorophore. The fluorophore selectively binds to a specific region or functional group on the target molecule and can be attached chemically or biologically. Various labeling techniques such as enzymatic labeling, protein labeling, and genetic labeling are widely utilized. Ethidium bromide, fluorescein and green fluorescent protein are common tags. The most commonly labelled molecules are antibodies, proteins, amino acids and peptides which are then used as specific probes for detection of a particular target.

The Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry is a research institute of the Max Planck Society located in Martinsried, a suburb of Munich. The institute was founded in 1973 by the merger of three formerly independent institutes: the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, the Max Planck Institute of Protein and Leather Research, and the Max Planck Institute of Cell Chemistry.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Planck Institute of Biophysics</span> Research institute

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Molecular biophysics</span> Interdisciplinary research area

Molecular biophysics is a rapidly evolving interdisciplinary area of research that combines concepts in physics, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and biology. It seeks to understand biomolecular systems and explain biological function in terms of molecular structure, structural organization, and dynamic behaviour at various levels of complexity. This discipline covers topics such as the measurement of molecular forces, molecular associations, allosteric interactions, Brownian motion, and cable theory. Additional areas of study can be found on Outline of Biophysics. The discipline has required development of specialized equipment and procedures capable of imaging and manipulating minute living structures, as well as novel experimental approaches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Planck Institute for Medical Research</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biophysical chemistry</span> Field of Study

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Macromolecular assembly</span>

The term macromolecular assembly (MA) refers to massive chemical structures such as viruses and non-biologic nanoparticles, cellular organelles and membranes and ribosomes, etc. that are complex mixtures of polypeptide, polynucleotide, polysaccharide or other polymeric macromolecules. They are generally of more than one of these types, and the mixtures are defined spatially, and with regard to their underlying chemical composition and structure. Macromolecules are found in living and nonliving things, and are composed of many hundreds or thousands of atoms held together by covalent bonds; they are often characterized by repeating units. Assemblies of these can likewise be biologic or non-biologic, though the MA term is more commonly applied in biology, and the term supramolecular assembly is more often applied in non-biologic contexts. MAs of macromolecules are held in their defined forms by non-covalent intermolecular interactions, and can be in either non-repeating structures, or in repeating linear, circular, spiral, or other patterns. The process by which MAs are formed has been termed molecular self-assembly, a term especially applied in non-biologic contexts. A wide variety of physical/biophysical, chemical/biochemical, and computational methods exist for the study of MA; given the scale of MAs, efforts to elaborate their composition and structure and discern mechanisms underlying their functions are at the forefront of modern structure science.

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Structural chemistry is a part of chemistry and deals with spatial structures of molecules and solids. For structure elucidation a range of different methods is used. One has to distinguish between methods that elucidate solely the connectivity between atoms (constitution) and such that provide precise three dimensional information such as atom coordinates, bond lengths and angles and torsional angles.

Bonnie Ann Wallace, FRSC is a British and American biophysicist and biochemist. She is a professor of molecular biophysics in the department of biological sciences, formerly the department of crystallography, at Birkbeck College, University of London, U.K.

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References

↑ Careers in Biophysics brochure, Biophysical Society https://www.biophysics.org/Portals/1/PDFs/Career%20Center/Careers%20In%20Biophysics.pdf Archived 2011-10-30 at the Wayback Machine
↑ Aaron RK, Ciombor DM, Wang S, Simon B. Clinical biophysics: the promotion of skeletal repair by physical forces. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2006 Apr;1068:513-31. Review.
↑ Anbar, M. Clinical biophysics: A new concept in undergraduate medical education. J Medical Education, 56, 443–444 (1981)
↑ "What is molecular biophysics?". Archived from the original on 2016-08-21. Retrieved 2011-11-03.

External links

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[1] Careers in Biophysics brochure, Biophysical Society https://www.biophysics.org/Portals/1/PDFs/Career%20Center/Careers%20In%20Biophysics.pdf Archived 2011-10-30 at the Wayback Machine

[2] Aaron RK, Ciombor DM, Wang S, Simon B. Clinical biophysics: the promotion of skeletal repair by physical forces. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2006 Apr;1068:513-31. Review.

[3] Anbar, M. Clinical biophysics: A new concept in undergraduate medical education. J Medical Education, 56, 443–444 (1981)

[4] "What is molecular biophysics?". Archived from the original on 2016-08-21. Retrieved 2011-11-03.

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