Hosted by the Center for Biomolecular Condensates

The McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis is launching a new center focused on the topic of biomolecular condensates. Intracellular phase transitions that couple of segregative (phase separation) and associative (percolation) phase transitions, have emerged as a new framework for understanding how macromolecules and biochemical reactions are organized in space and time within live cells. There is growing interest in this topic with the very exciting prospect that condensates can be engineered for bespoke functionalities while also paving the way to helping us understand how various degenerative and proliferative disorders arise.

Speakers include

• Anthony Hyman, Max Planck Institute, Cell Biology and Genetics
  “Condensates in Cell Physiology & Disease”
• Amy Gladfelter, University of North Carolina
  “The RNA Code in Condensates”
• Tuomas Knowles, University of Cambridge
  “Kinetics of Protein Phase Transitions”
• Matthew Tirrell, The University of Chicago
  “Phase separation driven by polyelectrolyte complexation”
• Clifford Brangwynne, Princeton University
  “Liquid Motors – Condensates as mechanical force generators”
• Helen McNeill, BJC Investigator, WashU School of Medicine
  “Nemp1 in mechanobiology and chromatin organization”
• Lucia Strader, Duke University
  “Condensation to attenuate transcription factor activity in plants”
• Michael Rosen, UT Southwestern Medical Center
  “A phase separation model for chromatin organization”

For inquiries contact Tammy Haney.