XIX meeting of the Italian Society of Pure and Applied Biophysics.

This special issue of the European Biophysics Journal contains papers presented as invited lectures or oral contributions at the XIX meeting of the Italian Society of Pure and Applied Biophysics, also known as SIBPA. The conference was held in Rome, 17–20 September 2008 at the “Sacro Cuore” Catholic University. For the second time, the Wrst was in 2006, the articles presented at the conference appear in this journal that is the major point of reference for the European Biophysical Societies’ Association (EBSA) and once again witness of the interesting development of the Italian Biophysics. The main topics of the meeting were organized in seven sessions, with two invited lectures per session, and a special lecture concerning the renewable energies obtained from biological sources performed by J. Barber of the Wolfson Labs (Imperial College, London). During the Biomolecular aggregate session M. Di Carlo (CNR-Palermo) and M. Digman (CA Univ. at Irvine) have interested the participants in the eVect on live cells of aggregation of beta-amyloid peptide and huntingtin, respectively. The session of Processes and mechanisms of the biological membranes has had its main points in the lectures concerning the studies of membrane permeability of ion channels (A. Moroni, Milano Univ.) or to antimicrobial peptides (G. Rispoli, Ferrara Univ.). For the session of Biomaterials and nano-biophysics O. Cavalleri (Genoa Univ.) and L. Cordone (Palermo Univ.) have discussed the possibility of a Wne control of protein folding/unfolding to build molecular nanostructures or the preservation properties of trehalose–water matrixes, respectively. The development of a framework for the registration of 3D imaging data for clinical heart investigations (R. Antolini, Trento Univ.) and the attempt to extend the results obtained on a charged, functionalized and patchy colloidal particles to globular protein solutions (F. Sciortino, Roma La Sapienza Univ.) have been discussed during the Theoretical and computational biophysics topic. In the session Photobiophysics and photoprocesses, T. Kottke (Bielefeld Univ.) has discussed the mechanism of blue light reception in plant and animal cryptochromes and D. Dell’Orco (Modena and Reggio Emilia Univ.) the molecular systems biology approaches to phototransduction in vertebrate rods. The investigation of a new biological scenario in which gene expression and regulation largely depend on a complex posttranscriptional network signals acting on mRNAs (A. Quattrone, Trento Univ.) and the relationship between structure and function in the P450 cytochrome involved in the erythromycin biosynthesis (B. Vallone, Roma La Sapienza Univ.) have been debated during the session regarding the Structure and function of proteins and nucleic acids. The biophysical mechanisms of regulation of CLC chloride channels and transporters (M. Pusch, Genoa CNR) and the application of optical and Xuorescence microscopies for dynamical tracking from cellular to molecular resolution (M. Faretta, Milan Eur. Inst. Oncol.) have been discussed during the Molecular and cellular biophysics session. The last day of the meeting, four young scientists have received the prize for their research: D. Giacomazza (&) Institute of Biophysics, National Research Council, Via U. La Malfa 153, Palermo, Italy e-mail: daniela.giacomazza@pa.ibf.cnr.it