Biological physics is the branch of science that applies the principles of physics, chemistry, and mathematics to the biological system to understand fundamental biological processes, such as how biomolecules, cells, tissues, and organs perform vital life functions. Scientists from diverse backgrounds use an experimental, computational, and theoretical approach to explore the mysteries of life. Medical physics applies knowledge of physics in medicine to diagnose and treat human disease using methods like magnetic resonance imaging and radiation treatments. Soft matter physics is an interdisciplinary field where scientists from different areas of science come together to understand the behavior and properties of soft materials like liquid crystals, colloids, polymers, gels, membranes, and cytoskeletons. The Biological/Medical/Soft Matter Physics session of the ANPA conference on July 17-20, 2025, aims to bring the scientists together to present their findings, discuss their research, and foster new collaborations. We invite you and your colleagues to submit abstracts for presentations and look forward to seeing you at the conference.

My laboratory has published magnetic resonance imaging (11.7 T) studies demonstrating secondary myocyte death after ischemia/reperfusion (IR) of the murine heart and stroke. This work provides the first evidence from 11.7-T magnet-assisted pixel-level analysis of the post-IR murine myocardial infarct patches. Changes in the function of the remodeling heart were examined in tandem, IR compromised cardiac function and induced LV hypertrophy. During recovery, the IR-induced increase in LV mass was partly offset. IR-induced wall thinning was noted in the anterior aspect of LV and at the diametrically opposite end. Infarct size was observed to be largest on post-IR days 3 and 7. With time (day 28), however, the infarct size was significantly reduced. IR-induced absolute signal-intensity enhancement was highest on post-IR days 3 and 7. As a function of post-IR time, signal intensity enhancement was attenuated. The threshold of hyper-enhanced tissue delineated contours that identified necrotic and reversibly injured infarct patches. The study of infarct transmurality indicated that while the permanently injured tissue volume remained unchanged, part of the reversibly injured infarct patch recovered in 4 weeks after IR. The approach validated in the current study is powerful in noninvasively monitoring the remodeling of the post-IR murine myocardium. Besides cardiac study, we study acute ischemic strokes in murine and canine models. Some of the recently published studies will be discussed.