Biomolecular condensates are shape shifting bits of DNA, RNA and proteins that “condense” molecules to key locations inside our cells. I call em "power blobs" cuz I'm fun like that. 🧪 🩺 Research from @rohitpappu68.bsky.social with @stjuderesearch.bsky.social

source.washu.edu/2025/05/rese...

We find that condensate interfaces catalyze nucleation of fibrils (as shown by Paolo Arosio, Evan Spruijt, Cliff Brangwynne) but that the interiors of condensates suppress fibril formation and growth. The fibrils grow from the dilute phase! Stabilizing condensates suppresses fibril growth.

Postdocs @tapojyotidas.bsky.social and Fatima Zaidi from my lab tackled this question with Mina Farag and Kiersten Ruff in Rohit's lab. @priya-r-banerjee.bsky.social and Tharun Mahendran and Anruag Singh came up with a neat condensate efflux assay. Collaboration with Paul Taylor on cellular data.

Are stress granules crucibles or protective against amyloid fibril formation? Read about our work at Mol Cell: "Tunable metastability of condensates reconciles their dual roles in amyloid fibril formation". Wonderful collaboration with @rohitpappu68.bsky.social and other colleagues (see next post)!

Nucleoli as biomolecular bubble tea! Congrats to former Princeton ugrad Holly Cheng (now GS @MIT) ->Holly's senior thesis work, a close collab w Roggeveen Wang & @zs-biophys.bsky.social‬ &Stone. Come for the cool movies & stay for the viscoelasticity! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2407423122

With @tanjamittag.bsky.social we asked if A1-LCD condensates are protective or crucibles for amyloid fibril formation. Their interfaces enable fibril nucleation but their interiors suppress fibril formation. Insights were transferrable to stress granules in cells.
doi.org/10.1016/j.mo...

Using kinetic models inspired by Tuomas Knowles, we predicted that efflux of material from metastable condensates becomes rate-limiting for fibril formation. Efflux slows as metastability increases. Experiments with @priya-r-banerjee.bsky.social confirmed these predictions.

We are very happy that XiaoYan's (Andy!) paper is out, congratulations to all authors
@cellpress.bsky.social
@xiaoyan52802927.bsky.social
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Demixing of TDP-43 inside stress granules generates pathological aggregates linked to ALS/FTD
@mpi-cbg.de @biotec-tud.bsky.social

Happy to share our new preprint on small molecule mediated inhibition of aging of biomolecular condensates.

#preprint Postdoc Nirbhik Acharya used NMR to find three transient helices within intrinsically-disordered regions of shuttle protein Dsk2 -- these interact with STI1. The STI1 is important for phase separation and proteasome condensates in yeast. Comments welcome!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

check out the latest from Kiersten Ruff, Rohit Pappu and team!

a molecular logic for protein disordered domains 🤩

New Preprint ‼️ Work led by the incredible @ananyac2000.bsky.social 💃🏽💃🏽 Mpipi-T is finally here!!! 🥳🥳 👇🏽👇🏽

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Second new preprint ‼️ Work led by brilliant postdoc @alinaemelianova.bsky.social (in collab with Pablo Garcia and Daniel Tan) where we leverage multiscale simulations to predict small-molecule partitioning into condensates 💦💊🙌🏽

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

In this wonderful collaboration with K Maeshima and M Shimazoe we show that H1 in living cells acts as a liquid-like glue not a driver of stiff zigzag fibers 🔥🔥🔥 Each H1 bridges multiple nucleosomes and exchanges nucleosomes frequently: boosting both compaction and dynamical behaviour of chromatin

CALVADOS-RNA is now published
doi.org/10.1021/acs....

This is a simple model for flexible RNA that complements and works with the CALVADOS protein model. Work led by Ikki Yasuda who visited us from Keio University.

Try it yourself using our latest code for CALVADOS
github.com/KULL-Centre/...

This observation led us to investigate the impact of sugar modifications on RNA condensation. We found that 2'-O-methylation reduces the driving force of RNA phase transitions and promotes reversibility, suggesting that sugar modifications serve as a tunable switch for RNA condensation. 2/2

New preprint in collaboration with @jerelleaj.bsky.social!! We show that the 2’-OH group of ribose sugar plays a crucial role in RNA condensation, while its absence in DNA inhibits phase separation and percolation, a transition linked to condensate arrest. 1/2

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Great presentations from the group (www.banerjeelab.org) at #2025BPS so far.

Congratulations to Tharun Mahendran on winning Student Research Achievement Award last night. 👏👏

Tharun will present his poster on "small molecule mediated inhibition of Tau condensate aging" on Wednesday morning.

For our first scientific session spotlight we are "Peeking away from the lampost" with Dr. Rohit Pappu as he joins us to discuss intrinsically disordered proteins. @rohitpappu68.bsky.social @biophysicalsoc.bsky.social #bps2025 youtu.be/pAP2lBWBiGU

If you are at #BPS2025, check out these 4 posters from the group.

(1) co-condensation grammar of prion-like domains;

(2) Intra-condensate RNA aggregation;

(3) small molecule mediated inhibition of Tau condensate aging;

(4) the latest updates on our nano-rheology tools for condensates.