University of Colorado at Boulder Professor Joseph Falke of the chemistry and biochemistry department has been elected president of the Biophysical Society, an international, professional group with more than 7,000 members.
Founded in 1956 and based in Rockville, Md., the Biophysical Society is made up primarily of research scientists who use physics and chemistry to study molecular problems in biology and medicine. Its members around the world teach and conduct research at universities, laboratories, government agencies and industry.
Falke, who will serve as president-elect of the society in 2006 and president in 2007, will continue to teach undergraduate and graduate courses at CU-Boulder and direct the university's Molecular Biophysics Program.
His lab focuses on information transfer pathways that move chemical and hormonal information from the outside of cells into their interiors, where it controls normal cellular behavior and growth. In disease states, such pathways also control bacterial infections, cancer and the immune system.