NWO Physics of Life (PoL) research community
Credit: Gijsje Koenderink, Delft University of Technology
Living systems comprise the most complex matter. Seeking a fundamental understanding of the processes that drive living systems pushes the boundaries of experimental and theoretical physics through the development of principles and concepts that balance the complexity of life with a physics-driven abstraction.
The field of Physics of Life (PoL) can be broadly divided into three areas that range from fundamental research into life processes to applied research that is crucial for innovative future healthcare. These three areas are:
- The physics of processes that are essential to life.
- Physics-based technologies that advance biological research
- Physics-driven research focused on health-care, diagnostics and treatments
Register for the research community
Not yet registered for a research community? The NWO Physics Round Table invites researchers to register for membership of their research communities. https://www.nwo.nl/en/register-for-research-community-for-physics.
Research community committee Physics of Life
The research community committees are a set of research community members that oversee specific subdiscipline(s) and are in direct contact with their relevant NWO Round Table. They coordinate part of the research community and facilitate interaction between the NWO Round Table and its research community, in particular with respect to (un)solicited advice on policy matters.
More information about the research communities and research community communities for physics can be found here: https://www.nwo.nl/en/research-communities-for-physics
The Physics of Life research community committee is made up of the following:
| Name | Affiliation | Expertise |
|---|---|---|
| Dr K.S. (Kristin) Grußmayer, chair | TUD | Multiplane Microscopy, Super-resolution Imaging (SMLM, SOFI & SIM), Quantitative Phase Imaging, Fluorescence Labeling, Neurodegenerative Disease |
| Prof. J.S. (Jeroen) van Zon, vice-chair and POL representative in the Round Table Physics | AMOLF/LEI | biophysics, developmental biology, C. elegans, organoids, single-cell dynamics, microscopy, cell tracking, deep learning image analysis, mathematical modelling |
| Prof. A. (Alessandra) Cambi | Radboudumc | immune cell biology, mechanoimmunology, cell adhesion and migration, membrane receptors, advanced microscopy |
| Prof. R.T. (Remus) Dame | LEI | chromosome organisation, transcription regulation, chromatin protein structure and evolution, single molecule micromanipulation, genomics |
| Dr D. (David) Dulin | VU | High-throughput single-molecule biophysics, protein-nucleic acid interactions, transcription/replication/translation, RNA virus, innate immunity. |
| Prof. C.M. (Christian) Kaiser | UU | Biophysical Chemistry of Membranes and Proteins |
| Prof. A. (Armagan) Kocer | UT | Membrane proteins – especially ion channels-, bioelectricity, bioelectrical communication, extracellular vesicle engineering, ion channels in cancer, electrophysiology, synthetic biology. |
| Dr N.A. (Nicholas) Kurniawan | TU/e | mechanobiology, tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, cell-matrix interactions, mechanosensing, geometry, organoids |
| Dr C. (Camilla) Terenzi | WUR | Magnetic resonance imaging, Nuclear magnetic resonance, Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, Porous media |
| Dr R. (Rifka) Vlijm | RUG | STED super-resolution microscopy, live-cell imaging, chromatin, cell division |
Annual group leader meeting
At NWO Biophysics the research community committee physics of life organizes their annual PI meeting.
The programme can be found here in due time: https://nwobiophysics.nl/programme-items/pi-meeting-physics-of-life
Seminar series
On a regular basis we organise community events is the form of scientific seminars. We initiated this seminar series in 2023 and featured highly many interesting keynote speakers including Ray Goldstein (Cambridge University), Erik van Nimwegen (University of Basel), Patricia Bassereau (CNRS), Seppe Kuehn (University of Chicago), Sonia Antoranz Contera, University of Oxford, and Anna Erzberger (EMBL). We usually start these afternoons with a networking lunch for PIs and subsequently have multiple scientific talks of a national PI, the keynote speaker and early career researchers. Interested in joining the organizing team or to give a talk? You can contact us via ResearchCommunity-PoL@nwo.nl. Once more details are known about the next seminar this will be announced to our community members via email and it will be included in the overview of NWO meetings.
Newsletters
We aim to circulate multiple newsletters per year to the physics of life community members. Do you have a news flash or research highlight interesting for the Dutch PoL community that you would like to add to the PoL newsletter? Send us an email: ResearchCommunity-PoL@nwo.nl
Newsletters
Contact
Would you like to contact the Physics of Life research community? Please, send an email to or call Naomi Chrispijn (secretary).
ResearchCommunity-PoL@nwo.nl
+31 (0)70 349 4063