From June 13th to 15th, 2025, our group actively participated in the 3rd National Conference on Biomolecular Structure Prediction and Modeling, held in Changchun, China. Prof. Chen SONG, along with Zefeng, Yiechang, and Lei, were honored with invitations to give talks to present our group's latest research. Congratulations to Jingze, Lingfeng, Qingyang, and Song for winning the poster award. Beyond the academic exchange, the conference provided a heartwarming reunion with former group members Hua, Dali, Yang, Jiaxuan, and Song. It was a joyous occasion to reconnect, reminisce, and celebrate our shared journey in advancing biomolecular science.

Lingfeng's work on the ion permeation and selectivity mechanisms of the voltage-gated calcium ion channel Ca_V1 has been published in PNAS (Link). In this work, Lingfeng showed that the three-ion knock-on mechanism not only enables the efficient calcium ion permeation but also helps to generate the valence selectivity because it is harder for sodium ions to get involved in the knock-on. Congratulations!

Dr. Chen Song was invited to give a talk at the "2025 Hong Kong Symposium on Molecular Modeling and Simulation" on May 24, an event organized by Dr. Yi Wang at The Chinese University of Hong Kong and co-chaired by Dr. Song. Zhongjie's recent work on improved anisotropic network models for membrane proteins and mechanosensitive ion channels was presented. A draft of the work has been posted on bioRxiv as well: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.05.22.654704.

Dr. Song was invited to present an AI-assisted class at the 2025 World Digital Education Conference in Wuhan on May 14. The presentation, which was a collaborative effort of a large team, was highly successful and received considerable acclaim from leading educators on a global scale.

Song YANG's research on developing the Multiple-Basin Gō-Martini method has been published online in JCTC (Link). The study introduces this new coarse-grained simulation technique to simulate spontaneous protein conformational transitions and reveals detailed insights into how proteins, especially membrane proteins, interact with their environment like lipid membranes. Notably, using the developed method, Song successfuly simulated the mechanosensitive ion channel TRAAK's "Down-Up" transitions under near-physiological membrane surface tension, detailing how lipid molecules interact with the protein during this process.

This work provides new tools and understanding of the molecular mechanisms governing protein dynamics and their environmental coupling. Congratulations to Dr. Song YANG on this nice achievement!

On April 27, 2025, Dr. Chen Song was invited to deliver a presentation at "The 18^th Chinese Chemical Society National Conference on Computer Chemistry of China", held in Xi'an. He introduced Ruihan's research on Virtual Directed Evolution of Antimicrobial Peptides through Deep Reinforcement Learning. The draft of this work is available on bioRxiv.

On April 19, 2025, Dr. Chen Song was invited to deliver a talk at "The 7^th National Conference of Protein & Peptide Chemical Biology" held in Qingdao. He introduced Jiaxuan's research on mechanism-driven screening of antimicrobial peptides. This work will be submitted to bioRxiv soon. Ruihan attended the conference too.

On April 9, 2025, Prof. Charles Cox from the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute was invited by Prof. Chen Song to deliver a CQB seminar titled "A new family of PIEZO channel auxiliary subunits". He introduced his team's discovery of MyoD-family inhibitor proteins (MDFIC and MDFI) as auxiliary subunits of PIEZO1/2 channels. Cryo-EM studies revealed their direct binding to PIEZO2's pore module. Prof. Charles Cox provides extensive data, highlighting their role as key regulators integrating mechanical signals into transcriptional pathways.

Qingyang's study on glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPx4) has been published online in the J. Mol. Biol. (Link). Conducted in collaboration with Prof. Luhua Lai's lab, the research combines multiscale molecular dynamics simulations with experimental assays to reveal the detailed physical interactions between GPx4 and membranes composed of different phospholipids, and their peroxidized derivatives.

This work provides new insights into the molecular mechanisms of GPx4-membrane interactions. Congratulations to Qingyang on this significant achievement!

On March 31, 2025, the project kick-off meeting of the National Key R&D Program, "Principles of membrane protein design as functional modules", was launched at Peking University. Leaders from the China National Center for Biotechnology Development and Peking University attended, alongside experts from top institutions.

Project leader Prof. Chen Song highlighted the integration of AI and physics-driven methods to address challenges in membrane protein design, aiming for applications in biomanufacturing, healthcare, and pharmaceuticals. Experts stressed collaboration and practical impact.

Now in its implementation phase, the five-year project aims to advance synthetic biology and drive innovation in biotechnology.