Ken Jacobson was a beloved figure in the biophysics community. He loved microscopes and watching the proteins and molecules that make up cells move around. He also loved to turn images into quantitative data. These are perspectives that our labs share, and we think he would have gotten a kick out of this work.

As anyone who’s ever used a microscope with a new sample knows, you sometimes see the unexpected. Those moments of wonder and excitement at seeing something for the first time push us forward to ask more questions. This collaboration among our labs was born from such a moment. From the first movie we took, we couldn’t stop staring at the nonmuscle myosin 2 running in the “wrong” direction. Myosin 2 is the main producer of contractile forces in cells, with heads at each end of a bipolar filament that pull actin filaments in opposite directions. Intuition suggests that it shouldn’t be able to run steadily along a filament in one direction—and yet, in the right circumstances, it does just that.

The cover image of the September 19 issue of Biophysical Journal is an homage to another processive myosin (myosin V) and an iconic Biophysical Journal cover. Both covers were drawn by artist Patrick Lane in the style of R. Crumb. The current cover image shows the myosin 2 behaving in different ways, from its main contractile function (shown as hands holding multiple actin filaments) to its novel cellular feature described in this special issue of moving processively along parallel bundles (shown as boots).

You can find more about our labs and the artist at the following sites:

Patrick Lane - http://www.sceyencestudios.com/

Eric A. Vitriol - https://www.augusta.edu/mcg/dnrm/faculty/vitriollab

Patrick W. Oakes - https://patrickoakeslab.com/

Jordan R. Beach - https://www.jordanbeachlab.com/

— Eric A. Vitriol, Melissa A. Quintanilla, Joseph J. Tidei, Lee D. Troughton, Abigail Cody, Bruno A. Cisterna, Makenzie L. Jane, Patrick W. Oakes, and Jordan R. Beach