Physics of Life 2025

Conference overview

The second edition of this large-scale conference “Physics of Life 2025” will take place in Harrogate 24-27 March 2025 to represent and draw together the diverse UK biological physics community. Organised jointly by PoLNet3, IOP Biological Physics, the British Biophysical Society, Physics of Living Matter and Physics meets Biology, this in-person meeting will project the excitement of science at the interface between physics and biology. In addition to keynote lectures, the conference will feature parallel sessions on a full breadth of topics, with many contributed talks, thereby ensuring a wide focus and inclusion of the most exciting science. 

Purpose

The aim is to bring together researchers working on biological physics within the UK and internationally to major UK conference to meet this demand in these growing communities.  The conference will cover a broad range of topics and should be of interest to across working across biology and physics. There will be plenty of networking opportunities. We encourage all  to join us!

Who should attend?

We invite participation by academic (from any career stage), industrial and medical scientists from the UK and beyond who are interested in research interaction at the physics/life sciences interface. 

Find out more

To keep up to date with the latest conference developments, please follow us on Twitter @PhysicsOfLifeMeet or go to the dedicated IoP conference page:

cLICK HERE FOR Physics of Life 2025 IoP WEBPAGE

Plenary speakers

Nathalie Balaban, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Margaret Gardel, University of Chicago, USA
L. Mahadevan, Harvard University, USA
Otger Campas, Physics of Life cluster, Dresden 
Aleksandra Walczak, Ecole Normale Supérieure, France
Lorna Dougan, University of Leeds, UK
Satyajit Mayor, University of Warwick, UK

Sessions

Biomolecular assemblies and condensates
Session Chair: 

• Rosana Collepardo-Guevara, University of Cambridge, UK

Invited Speakers:

• Janet Kumita, University of Cambridge, UK
• Halim Kusumaatmaja, University of Edinburgh, UK

Physics of Disease * sponsored by the Rosetrees Trust
Session Chair: 

• Mark Leake, University of York, UK

Invited Speakers:

• Sally Peyman, Heriot Watt University, UK
• Laura Machesky, University of Cambridge, UK

Physics of the Nucleus 
Session Chair: 

• Sarah Harris, University of Sheffield, UK

Invited Speakers:

• Rosana Collepardo-Guevara, University of Cambridge, UK
• Davide Marenduzzo, University of Edinburgh, UK

Clocks, timers and cell cycle dynamics 
Session Chair: 

• James Locke, University of Cambridge, UK

Invited Speakers:

• Andrew Oates, EPFL, Switzerland
• Nancy Papalopulu, University of Manchester, UK

Protein structure, dynamics and interactions 
Session Chair: 

• Rivka Isaacson, King's College London, UK

Invited Speakers:

• Laura Itzhaki, University of Cambridge, UK
• Ehmke Pohl, University of Durham, UK

Cell metabolism and growth 
Session Chair: 

• Ruby Peters, University of Sheffield, UK

Invited Speakers:

• Marco Cosentino Lagomarsino, IFOM, Italy
• Maria Makarova, University of Birmingham, UK

Cell architecture and forces 
Session Chair: 

• Tannie Liverpool, University of Bristol, UK

Invited speakers: 

• Mathieu Piel, Institut Curie, France
• Gijsje Koenderink, Delft University, Netherlands

Immunity, resistance and host/pathogen dynamics 
Session Chair: 

• Pietro Cicuta, University of Cambridge, UK

Invited Speakers:

• Jennifer Rohn, University College London, UK
• Somenath Bakshi, University of Cambridge, UK

Microbes across length scales 
Session Chair: 

• Somenath Bakshi, University of Cambridge, UK

Invited Speakers:

• Tanmay Bharat, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, UK
• Rosalind Allen, University of Jena, Germany

Tissue growth, mechanics and mechanosensing 
Session Chair: 

• Yoselin Benitez Alfonso, University of Leeds, UK

Invited Speakers:

• Naomi Nakayama, Imperial College London, UK
• Sonia Contera, University of Oxford, UK

Differentiation and development 
Session Chair: 

• Austin Smith, Living Systems Institute, University of Exeter, UK

Invited Speakers:

• Ewa Paluch, University of Cambridge, UK
• Takashi Hiiragi, Hubrecht Institute, Netherlands, and University of Kyoto, Japan

Emerging Areas in the Physics of Life
Session Chair:

• Alice Pyne, University of Sheffield, UK

Invited Speakers:

• Aakash Basu, Durham University, UK
• Hannah Smithson, University of Oxford, UK​

Patterns, waves, transport and flow
Session Chair: 

• Marco Mazza, Loughborough University, UK

Invited Speakers:

• Kirsty Wan, University of Exeter, UK
• Nir Gov, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Natural and synthetic molecular machines 
Session Chair: 

• Ehmke Pohl, Durham University, UK

Invited Speakers:

• Atlanta Cook, University of Edinburgh, UK
• Jonathan Heddle, Durham University, UK

Engineering tissues, organoids and biohybrids 
Session Chair: 

• Margarita Staykova, Durham University, UK

Invited Speakers:

• Yuval Elani, Imperial College London, UK
• Manuel Salmeron-Sanchez, University of Glasgow, UK

Bioelectricity across scales 
Session Chair: 

• Teuta Pilizota, University of Edinburgh, and University of Cambridge, UK

Invited Speakers:

• Francesco Pedaci, Center for Structural Biology, CNRS, France

• Jenny Zhang, University of Cambridge, UK

Evolution, ecology and epidemiology 
Session Chair: 

• Bhavin Khatri, Imperial College, London, and Francis Crick Institute, UK

Invited Speakers:

• Zena Hadjivasiliou, The Francis Crick Institute, UK
• Richard Neher, University of Basel, Switzerland

Imaging and single molecule biology
Session Chair: 

• Maddy Parsons, King's College London, UK

Invited Speakers:

• Chris Dunsby, Imperial College London, UK
• Sandrine Lévêque-Fort, ISMO-CNRS-Université Paris Saclay, France