Biophysics

Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that seeks, firstly, to investigate processes in biological systems by using the laws of physics and their measurement methods and to describe to the other but also deals with the targeted development and enhancement of physical methods to study biological processes. The bionics can be attributed to biophysics. Briefly, biophysics, the application of Biological Physics, and vice versa.

Issues and problems that arise in addition to biology and from the medical research and application. Biophysical research thus requires the close collaboration of scientists from the disciplines of physics, biology, chemistry, medicine and their limit Sciences. For this reason, the biophysics at the universities is not necessarily associated with the Department of Physics. If the biophysics at first exclusively by scientists from the above-mentioned disciplines (especially physicists ) operated independent biophysics courses have now been set up at several German universities.

• 6.1 Reference Books
• 6.2 journals

Term

The word Biophysics consists of Greek βίος, bios, " life" and φυσική ( θεωρία ), physicist ( theoria ) = " natural (Research) ". Historically, the physics began with the description of processes of inanimate nature. Here is now examined the extent to which the findings are applicable to the biota. The term was introduced Biophysics and marked by Boris Rajewsky at the founding of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biophysics, the current MPI of Biophysics.

General principles

Biological objects are ( from individual cells over large cellular complexes, such as tissues or organs to higher organisms ) by their very nature extremely complex. In the control of biological processes can only be integral with a variety of factors, which in many cases are also independently of each other was investigated. This represents a significant limitation for classical biology dar.

The essence of physics is to reduce complex systems to a few influencing factors. In biophysics will first attempt to reduce biological systems to a minimum. In this simplified model systems is then attempted by physical methods to investigate the processes within the biological system, ideally at the molecular or supramolecular level and describe using physical laws. About the correlation of biophysical data with the corresponding biological data can be ensured that the model system used is able to describe the biological system is sufficient. The most important bases of this form, the laws of thermodynamics and electrodynamics, but also quantum mechanics and classical mechanics apply. Of crucial importance is the knowledge of the physical laws and techniques and a detailed understanding of biological systems and the physicochemical properties of the molecules involved.

In addition, the physics considers a variety of methods ( eg from spectroscopy or microscopy ) ready, in their original form for the inspection and treatment of biological objects or its individual components ( eg, lipids or proteins) under physiological conditions are suitable. Another focus of Biophysics is the adaptation of these methods for processing biological problems. Furthermore, as well as specially exploited physical effects to their base to develop new methods that allow the study of biological processes. The applications of these methods range from virtually all areas of biology to the medical diagnostics and therapy.

The biophysics represents a link between biology and in addition to the physics of a variety of other scientific disciplines, such as medicine, medical technology, chemistry, biochemistry, physical chemistry, computer science, etc., dar. Biophysical Research therefore requires a close collaboration between scientists from different fields, it is therefore often not operated exclusively in physical institutions. Frequently biophysically oriented working groups are also found in biological, chemical, pharmacological and medical departments or faculties.

Subregions

Like most other natural sciences is divided into different sub-regions and biophysics. A specific biological question, however, can rarely be clearly assigned to a subregion.

The following are the different sub-regions are briefly introduced:

• Cellular or Molecular Biophysics deals among other things with biopolymers, protein structures and protein dynamics, light absorption and physical models of enzymes.
• The membrane biophysics concerned with the study of the physicochemical properties of biomembranes and their functional components, such as channels, receptors and transporters, and their interaction with bioactive substances, such as peptides.
• Electrophysiology studies the functioning and interaction of electrically excitable cells in the nervous system and in muscle.
• Biomechanics is concerned with functions and structures of the musculoskeletal system and the movement of biological systems.
• The photo- biophysics and biophotonics deal with the effects of external light on living systems and the function of photon emission in living systems.
• Bioenergetics deals with the thermodynamics of metabolic processes.
• The radiation biophysics concerned with the impact of ionizing radiation on organisms and their application, for example, in therapy.
• The aerosol research examines the properties of aerosol particles (eg particulate matter ) and their risks.
• Bioinformatics is no branch of biophysics in the strict sense, but is closely connected with her on many points, such as the sequencing of the human genome.
• The spectroscopy deals with the major in biology spectroscopic methods (such as magnetic resonance spectroscopy, UV / VIS spectroscopy).
• Supramolecular compounds
• System Neuroscience
• Neural Encoding - the representation of information through the neurons of the brain.
• Theoretical Biophysics

Important biophysicist and important for biophysics researchers

• Luigi Galvani, discoverer of bioelectricity
• Georg von Békésy, research on the human ear, Nobel Prize 1961
• Friedrich Dessauer, radiation research and radiology, founder of Biophysics, Director of the " Institute of Physical foundations of medicine ", from which ultimately became the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics
• Walter Friedrich is considered the founders of the Biophysics
• Hermann von Helmholtz measure first the speed of nerve impulses
• Bernard Katz discovered how synapses work
• Max Perutz and John Kendrew, pioneers of protein crystallography
• Boris Rajewsky successor of Friedrich Dessauer and founder of the "Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biophysics ". He coined the term " biophysics ".
• Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin, pioneers of DNA crystallography, Nobel Prize 1962
• Erwin Neher and Bert Sakmann, developer of the patch -clamp technique, Nobel Prize in 1991
• Irving Langmuir and Katherine Blodgett developed the concept of the monolayer, Langmuir was awarded the 1932 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• Adolf Fick introduced the Fick's law for the description of diffusion processes on
• Gerd Binnig invented the atomic force microscope, Nobel Prize in 1986 for the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope together with Heinrich Rohrer
• Ernst Ruska is considered the father of electron microscopy, Nobel Prize 1986
• Erich Sackmann, pioneering work in the field of cell biophysics, in particular the study of lipid membranes and the mechanics of the cytoskeleton.
• J. Andrew McCammon, Bruce A. Gellin and Martin Karplus conducted the first molecular dynamics simulation of a protein.

Biophysics in Germany

Research

University Biophysical institutes and departments are affiliated in Germany most of the mathematical and natural sciences, but also to the medical schools. In addition to the universities find Biophysical Research also held at institutes of the Leibniz Association and the Max Planck Society. There are also several biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies that maintain their own biophysics departments.

Teaching

Biophysics is taught at many universities - partly as a minor, partly as a major subject or in part as an independent study course. This biophysics can be tackled more from the biological or rather from the physical direction. At the Humboldt University a course of study " Biophysics " at the Faculty of Biology is offered for more than 20 years. In the winter semester 2008/2009 edition, a master's degree program was offered. The Technical University of Munich was one of the first universities, which has the independent course Biophysics integrated into the physics, and now offers an MSc degree in biophysics at. Since the winter semester 2002/2003, an independent study course Biophysics at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern is possible, also include here the physics department. The University of Frankfurt offers since the winter semester 2008/ 09 and the University of the Saarland since the winter semester 2009/10, a course Biophysics. At the Faculty of Physics, University of Bielefeld Biophysics is offered since 2006 as part of a Bachelor's and Master's program with subsequent promotion opportunity. Mostly, however, is only biophysics major or minor for students of physics. However, many universities allow a doctorate in biophysics. The number of universities offering biophysics as a diploma, master 's and bachelor's degree program, increases it.

German Society for Biophysics

Organized German biophysicist are in the German Society for Biophysics ( DGfB ). This is a member of the European Biophysical Societies' Association ( EBSA ) and the International Union for Pure and Applied Biophysics ( IUPAB ). The largest and most important biophysical society is the Biophysical Society, the American Biophysical Society, in German also can become a member.