RTG 3120 Biomolecular Condensates – From Physics to Biological Functions

Learn the basics of Biomolecuar Condensates

A quick intro to the Physics of Wetting

19. September 2023

How Protein Condensates Age

8. August 2023

Diving into the Free Energy: Part 1

31. May 2023

Go to the Science Sketches page for more cool explanatory movies.

Current news by our research groups

Intra-condensate demixing of TDP-43 inside stress granules generates pathological aggregates

A new study from the labs of Honigmann, Hyman, and Alberti in Dresden, in addition to colleagues in Texas A&M University, Mayo Clinic, Brown University, and Saint Louis University investigates the mechanism behind pathological outcomes of protein aggregation inside stress granules. The authors…

Impact of Coiled-Coil Domains on the Phase Behavior of Biomolecular Condensates

A new Study from the Harmon and Sommer Labs in ACS Macro Letters entitled 'Impact of Coiled-Coil Domains on the Phase Behavior of Biomolecular Condensates' addressed how the geometry and structure of folded domains impact condensate formation. They used coarse-grained simulations to determine that…

New Research Training Group for Biomolecular Condensates in Dresden

The DFG approved a funding application to establish a new Research Training Group (RTG 3120) in Dresden to train PhD students interdisciplinary methods and approaches to study Biomolecular Condensates. Read the press releases for more:…

CD-Code is now published in Nature Methods

CD-CODE is now published in Nature Methods. It is a “living database” that we designed for fast…

A role for RNA in Stress Granules assembly

Stress granules are membraneless compartments formed by phase separation of specific molecules upon exposure to cellular stress such as oxidative stress, heat shock, or osmotic stress. The Alberti, Jahnel, Honigmann, and Hyman labs published a study in cell highlighting the role of RNA in the…

Filament formation by the translation factor eIF2B regulates protein synthesis in starved cells

Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRSs), the enzymes responsible for coupling tRNAs to their cognate amino acids, minimize translational errors by intrinsic hydrolytic editing. Here, we compared norvaline (Nva), a linear amino acid not coded for protein synthesis, to the proteinogenic, branched valine…

Condensation regulates translation

New insights into the influence of Ded1p condensation on translation comes from the Hyman, Alberti and Kreysing labs. The study published in Cell is entitled "Condensation of Ded1p Promotes a Translational Switch from Housekeeping to Stress Protein Production". Graphical abstract:

Research training Group 3120