BIOS 401: Phase Separation in Biology

Course Description

Cellular phase transitions underlie the formation of membrane-less compartments enabling cellular organization. While the existence of membrane-less organelles, such as nucleoli, stress granules, and Cajal bodies had been known for a long time, it had remained largely unclear until recently how they were formed, maintained, and regulated. Recent advances have shown how phase separated condensates underlie many cellular processes such as in immune response and neuronal synaptic signaling, and genome organization.Many of the available literature is difficult to follow as one needs an understanding of polymer physics, cell-biology, and biomolecular interactions to fully grasp phase separation in biology. In this course, we will start from fundamental polymeric understanding of phase separation and build from there towards phase separation of biomacromolcules in-vitro followed by in-vivo condensation and how biomolecular condensates can affect cell-biology