This Research Front is aligned with the BIOPHYSCHEM2011 meeting, a joint conference of the Australian Society for Biophysics and the Physical Chemistry Division of the RACI, which was held at the University of Wollongong from 3 to 6 December 2011. Research across the physical chemistry and biophysics disciplines is strong and lively in Australia and the multidisciplinary nature of these studies is a feature, with links connecting basic biological science and applications to physical chemistry processes to nanotechnological applications, and vice versa.