Phase separation in cell physiology and disease
September 7, 2026 @ 15:30 – 16:30 CEST
Speaker: Anthony Hyman, Director General EMBL
Host: Jan Ellenberg, Director SciLifeLab
Cells organize many of their biochemical reactions by formation and dissolution of non-membrane-bound compartments. Recent experiments show that one common mechanism for such biochemical organization is phase separation of disordered proteins to form compartments with liquid properties.
These compartments can subsequently harden to form compartments with new material properties such as gels and glasses. These compartments can be described by principles elucidated from condensed-matter physics and are therefore termed biomolecular condensates. I will discuss potential roles of condensates in organization and robustness of cellular biochemistry and how they fail in neurodegenerative disease, using aggregation of TDP-43 in ALS as a model.
Bio
The Hyman lab studies how phase separation impacts the formation of membraneless compartmentalisation of macromolecules inside living cells. Stemming from our work on C.elegans in 2009 (Brangwynne et al. 2009), observations over the last decade have shown that many non-membrane compartments have liquid-like properties (Banani et al. 2017). The liquid-like nature of condensates is ascertained using microscopy in cells by observing fusion events, round shape, rapid diffusion of components, and a predictable response to changes in thermodynamic parameters such as temperature. Phase separation phenomena can be used to describe the formation of P granules (Brangwynne et al. 2009), nucleoli (Brangwynne et al. 2011), stress granules and centrosomes (Brangwynne et al. 2009) and estimates suggest that at least 30% of proteins in the nucleus are in such compartments (Thul et al. 2017). To capture the role of soft matter physics in describing these compartments, we have termed them biomolecular condensates (Banani et al. 2017).
For more details visit: https://hymanlab.org/hyman_lab/research-overview/
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