Biophysics

From Wikinfo

Biophysics (also biological physics) is an interdisciplinary science that applies theories and methods of the physical sciences to questions of biology. Biophysics research today comprises of a number of specific biological studies. These studies do not share a unique identifying factor, or subject themselves to clear and concise definitions. This is the result of biophysics' relatively recent appearance as a scientific discipline. The studies included under the umbrella of biophysics ranges from sequence comparison to neural networks. In the recent past, biophysics included creating mechanical limbs and nanomachines to regulate biological functions. Nowadays, these are more commonly referred to as belonging to the fields of bioengineering and nanotechnology respectively. We may expect these definitions to further refine themselves.

Overview

Biophysics often does not have university-level departments of its own, but have presence as groups across departments within the fields of biology, biochemistry, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, medicine, pharmacology, physiology, physics, and neuroscience. What follows is a list of examples of how each department applies it's efforts toward the study of biophysics. This list is hardly all inclusive. Nor does each subject of study belong exclusively to any particular department. Each academic institution makes it's own rules and there is much mixing between departments.

Biology and molecular biology - Almost all biophysics efforts are included in some biology department somewhere. To include some: gene regulation, single protein dynamics, bioenergetics, patch clamping, phylogenetic tree, biological structures.
Biochemistry and chemistry - biomolecular structure, siRNA, nucleic acid structure.
Computer science - sequence comparison, neural networks.
Mathematics - population modeling, fluid dynamics.
Medicine and neuroscience - tackling neural networks experimentally (brain slicing) as well as theoretically (computer models), membrane permitivity, gene therapy, understanding tumors.
Pharmacology and physiology - channel biology, biomolecular interactions, cellular membranes, polyketides.
Physics - biomolecular free energy, biomolecular structures and dynamics, protein folding, stochastic processes, surface dynamics.

Some of the research traditions in biophysics were initiated by scientists who were physicists, although many of the scientists who call themselves biophysicists today are not.