Physics of Life
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    • PoL SPF link
  • PoLNET3
    • Steering Group
    • Funding Opportunities >
      • Workshops
      • Sandpits
      • Pump priming
      • Student Summer Bursaries
    • Early Career Researchers
    • Events >
      • Upcoming >
        • Cutting-edge methods for bacterial pathogen interactions with host cells
        • Physics of Viruses
        • Physics of Life: ECR bootcamp
        • Physics of Life 2023
      • Past >
        • Physics of Life Summer School 2022
        • Antimicrobial Resistance
        • Motility in Microbes, Molecules and Matter
        • Periodic patterns
        • Metastasis Workshop
        • Physics of Life ECR workshop
        • Physics of Life/iPoLS seminar
        • Biophysics and evolution
        • Neurodegenerative disease
        • Physics of Brains
        • Launch
  • Physics of Medicine
    • Steering Group
  • POLNET 2
    • PoLNET2 team
    • Student Summer Bursaries
    • Events >
      • PoLNET2 Past Events >
        • Sandpits
        • Past summer schools >
          • Summer School: Physics of Life Summer School: From Cells to Tissues and Organisms
          • Summer School: New approaches to Biomolecular function, structure and dynamics
        • Physics of Life Town Meetings >
          • Town Meeting 2019
          • Town Meeting 2018
          • Town Meeting 2017
        • Past Workshops >
          • QMGR V
          • Non-equilibrium Cold Plasmas in Biology and Medicine
          • The Fundamentals of Late Stage Cancer
          • The Physics of Evolution
          • Interdisciplinary Challenges in Non-Equilibrium Physics
          • Nanostructures at Soft Interfaces: Technology and Biophysics
          • Physics of Biological Oscillators
          • The Future of Optical Techniques in Biology
          • Multiscale mechanics in Biology
          • Epigenetics
          • Physics of Animal Health
          • Cancer Workshop
          • QMGR
          • Symmetry
          • Nanofluidics
          • Quantum Biology
          • Antimicrobial Resistance
          • Filaments and Cellular Responses
          • Biocomputation
          • Workshop Reports
  • PoLNET 1
    • PoLNET 1 Team
    • PoLNET1 Past Events >
      • Launch meeting 2013
      • Plenary Event 1: The Living Cell
      • Plenary Event 2: Synthetic Biology
      • Plenary Event 3: Multicellularity
      • Focussed Workshops >
        • 1: The Physics of Bacterial Infection
        • 2: Forces in Biology
        • 3: Life in Extreme Environments
        • 4: The Physics of Cancer
        • 5: Information Flow in Biological Systems
        • 6: Pattern Formation and Morphogenesis
        • 7: Compartmentalisation & Confinement
        • 8: Physics of Bacterial Biofilms
        • 9: Cancer Sandpit
      • Summer/Winter schools >
        • Summer School
        • Winter School
      • Final Summit
    • Roadmap for Biological Physics
  • Useful Links
  • Contact us
  • Home
  • About
    • Meet the team
    • Our network
    • IoP Rosalind Franklin Medal
    • PoL SPF link
  • PoLNET3
    • Steering Group
    • Funding Opportunities >
      • Workshops
      • Sandpits
      • Pump priming
      • Student Summer Bursaries
    • Early Career Researchers
    • Events >
      • Upcoming >
        • Cutting-edge methods for bacterial pathogen interactions with host cells
        • Physics of Viruses
        • Physics of Life: ECR bootcamp
        • Physics of Life 2023
      • Past >
        • Physics of Life Summer School 2022
        • Antimicrobial Resistance
        • Motility in Microbes, Molecules and Matter
        • Periodic patterns
        • Metastasis Workshop
        • Physics of Life ECR workshop
        • Physics of Life/iPoLS seminar
        • Biophysics and evolution
        • Neurodegenerative disease
        • Physics of Brains
        • Launch
  • Physics of Medicine
    • Steering Group
  • POLNET 2
    • PoLNET2 team
    • Student Summer Bursaries
    • Events >
      • PoLNET2 Past Events >
        • Sandpits
        • Past summer schools >
          • Summer School: Physics of Life Summer School: From Cells to Tissues and Organisms
          • Summer School: New approaches to Biomolecular function, structure and dynamics
        • Physics of Life Town Meetings >
          • Town Meeting 2019
          • Town Meeting 2018
          • Town Meeting 2017
        • Past Workshops >
          • QMGR V
          • Non-equilibrium Cold Plasmas in Biology and Medicine
          • The Fundamentals of Late Stage Cancer
          • The Physics of Evolution
          • Interdisciplinary Challenges in Non-Equilibrium Physics
          • Nanostructures at Soft Interfaces: Technology and Biophysics
          • Physics of Biological Oscillators
          • The Future of Optical Techniques in Biology
          • Multiscale mechanics in Biology
          • Epigenetics
          • Physics of Animal Health
          • Cancer Workshop
          • QMGR
          • Symmetry
          • Nanofluidics
          • Quantum Biology
          • Antimicrobial Resistance
          • Filaments and Cellular Responses
          • Biocomputation
          • Workshop Reports
  • PoLNET 1
    • PoLNET 1 Team
    • PoLNET1 Past Events >
      • Launch meeting 2013
      • Plenary Event 1: The Living Cell
      • Plenary Event 2: Synthetic Biology
      • Plenary Event 3: Multicellularity
      • Focussed Workshops >
        • 1: The Physics of Bacterial Infection
        • 2: Forces in Biology
        • 3: Life in Extreme Environments
        • 4: The Physics of Cancer
        • 5: Information Flow in Biological Systems
        • 6: Pattern Formation and Morphogenesis
        • 7: Compartmentalisation & Confinement
        • 8: Physics of Bacterial Biofilms
        • 9: Cancer Sandpit
      • Summer/Winter schools >
        • Summer School
        • Winter School
      • Final Summit
    • Roadmap for Biological Physics
  • Useful Links
  • Contact us

Future plans

Our initial Physics of Life funding from EPSRC/BBSRC Network Plus has helped build a strong, interdisciplinary Biological Physics community.  We have applied for, and won, further EPSRC and BBSRC funding to take the commnuity forward with an extended network of partners.

PoLNet2 Partners

Durham University (Lead institution)    
Bristol University     
Cambridge University
Crick Institute (from 2017)    
Edinburgh University     
Glasgow University
John Innes Centre    
Leeds University   
University of Liverpool
Oxford University    
Sheffield University    
Southampton University
York University    
British Biophysical Society    
IoP Biological Physics Group
We envisage a second phase of the network that takes the community on towards active research programmes, new topics, and continues growing interdisciplinary connections in a sustainable way.  PoLNet2 will not simply continue the methodology of the first network, but recognises that the environment is now different and ready for a new phase of activity. It constitutes an efficient way to realise the initial recommended actions of the ‘Roadmap for the Physics of Life’ and has 6 objectives and associated activities:

PoLNet2 Objectives

  1. Develop the research questions from PoLNet1 into active research programmes
  2. Continue to create a pipeline of new PoL research challenges
  3. Move to a sustainable UK PoL community by working very closely with British Biophysical Society (BBS) and the IoP  Biological Physics Group (BPG), and partner universities
  4. Grow the community of biologists who engage with the PoL community, its activities (the role of BBSRC is crucial here, as is the Crick Institute) and subsequent research programmes, working jointly with EPSRC and BBSRC and other funders to address wherever possible the highlighted topics of BBSRC with the collaborative science of EPSRC.
  5. Extend the Network by research partnerships with the relevant industrial sector (through a series of industry-oriented workshops) building on IoP and BBS links.
  6. Deliver a resource of pedagogical material for PoL, online and through graduate schools
In order to create a pipeline of new PoL research challenges, we are proposing a number of new topics for PoLNet2 workshops:

Proposed topics for new PoLNet2 workshops

Plant growth mechanics and signalling    
New horizons in bioimaging
The physics of epigenetics    
Bioenergy in processing of biological waste
Control of cell shape, size, in eukaryotes    
Evolution and statistical mechanics
Engineering biomimetic machines    
Phase-separation/transition in biological systems
Quantum biology     
Protocells
Biophysics of ageing    
Novel strategies in drug discovery and biologics

Funded by:                                                                                                 Managed bY:

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