Protein condensates are dense droplets of proteins that organise the interior of the cell. Curiously, they age, meaning their physical properties such as viscosity change over time. In our paper “Theory of rheology and aging of protein condensates” published in PRX Life, we study how protein condensates become very viscous with time reflecting its glassy nature. We formulate a theory to understand this intriguing phenomenon.

Check out the paper for more info! https://journals.aps.org/prxlife/abstract/10.1103/PRXLife.1.013006

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Get ready to dive into the Free Energy!

Cells can be described as systems made of different phases. For instance, biomolecular condensates are dense droplets of proteins that coexist with the rest of the cytoplasm. Thermodynamics is a helpful theoretical framework to understand phases in cells. In this video, we explain the concept of Free Energy of a mixture and we see how can we predict the equilibrium state of the system from the Free Energy.

Prepared by Mariona Esquerda Ciutat from the Hyman and Jülicher labs in Dresden.

The post Diving into the Free Energy: Part 1 appeared first on RTG 3120 Biomolecular Condensates.

Get ready to dive into the Free Energy!

If we want to understand phases in cells we need to talk about the Free Energy of a thermodynamic system. This is the second part of the video “Diving into the Free Energy”. In this video, we will understand how thermodynamic mixtures reach equilibrium by minimising the Free Energy. We will see that asking if a mixture will phase-separate or not is the same as asking what is the minimum energy allowed for the mixture. Not only that, but we will also show how the Binodal line on the Phase Diagram directly emerges from the Free Energy!

Prepared by Mariona Esquerda Ciutat from the Hyman and Jülicher labs in Dresden.

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Cells organize their interior into functional compartments, some without an enclosing membrane. These dense liquid droplets of biomolecules coexist with the surrounding environment like oil drops in water constantly exchanging material with it.

How is the random movement of single biomolecules influenced by the presence of these droplets?

In this video, we explain our recent work published in Phys. Rev. Research, answering this question. 

Check out the paper for more info https://journals.aps.org/prresearch/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.043150

Prepared by Mariona Esquerda Ciutat from the Hyman and Jülicher labs in Dresden.

The post How do single molecules move in and out of condensates? appeared first on RTG 3120 Biomolecular Condensates.