Biophysics sits at the fascinating intersection where the laws of physics meet the complexity of living systems. This field uses tools like light, electricity, and mechanical forces to decode how cells move, how proteins fold, and how our senses translate the world around us. Rather than just observing biology, biophysicists measure and model life to understand the fundamental machinery that powers every organism.

On Gist.Science, we make these discoveries accessible by curating the latest preprints directly from bioRxiv. Our team processes every new submission in this category, providing both clear, plain-language overviews and detailed technical summaries so readers of all backgrounds can grasp the cutting-edge science. Below are the most recent biophysics papers from bioRxiv, ready for you to explore.

⚛️ biophysics

Individuality and information content of infrared molecular profiles: insights from a large longitudinal health-profiling study

This study demonstrates that infrared molecular profiles derived from blood samples exhibit high individuality and stability over time, offering greater intrinsic information content than standard clinical laboratory panels and significantly improving individual identification accuracy when the two data modalities are combined.

Zarandy, Z. I., Nemeth, F. B., Eissa, T., Lakatos, C., Nagy, D., Debreceni, D., Fleischmann, F., Kovacs, Z., Gero, D., Z (…)2026-04-13
⚛️ biophysics

A Heart Disease-Associated TSPO Variant Alters Transmembrane Helix Dynamics

Using solution NMR spectroscopy, this study reveals that the heart disease-associated A14V variant of human TSPO reduces conformational heterogeneity in the dynamic N-terminal transmembrane helix, thereby locally stabilizing the protein's structure near the VDAC interaction interface while preserving its overall fold.

Kusova, A., Riviere, G., Giller, K., Laudette, M., Boren, J., Becker, S., Zweckstetter, M.2026-04-13
⚛️ biophysics

Improved cryo-EM reconstruction of sub-50 kDa complexes using 2D template matching

This paper demonstrates that combining high-resolution structural priors with 2D template matching significantly improves the cryo-EM reconstruction of small macromolecular complexes, successfully resolving a previously intractable ~43 kDa protein kinase and predicting the method's potential to extend single-particle cryo-EM to targets well below 50 kDa.

Zhang, K., Grant, T., Grigorieff, N.2026-04-11
⚛️ biophysics

Rapid and reliable quantification of cytosolic mRNA escape (RNASCAPE)

The paper introduces RNASCAPE, a deep learning framework that accurately quantifies cytosolic mRNA escape efficiency from lipid nanoparticles using minimal expression data and formulation parameters, thereby overcoming current bottlenecks in scalable and reliable therapeutic delivery optimization.

Schulz, F. H., Sorensen, E. W., Bender, S. W., Breuer, A., Kyriakakis, G., Dreisler, M. W., Bolis, G., Oikonomou, A., Ts (…)2026-04-11
⚛️ biophysics

Integrating computational chemistry and machine learning to predict KRAS mutation-induced resistance

This study presents a computational framework that integrates molecular dynamics simulations with machine learning classifiers to accurately predict KRAS mutation-induced drug resistance by identifying key conformational and solvent-exposure changes driven by specific residues.

Mizgalska, K., Urbaniak, K., Imbody, D. J., Haura, E. B., Guida, W. C., Branciamore, S., Karolak, A.2026-04-11