Okazaki_Award_logo

The 6th Tsuneko & Reiji Okazaki Award 2022 Winner

Liquid Phase Condensation in Cell Physiology & Disease

Clifford Brangwynne
June K. Wu ’92 Professor of Chemical & Biological Engineering, Princeton University
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

My colleagues and I have pioneered the concept that biomolecules condense into dynamic intracellular compartments through a process known as liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) (1,2). Biomolecular condensates are found throughout the cell, and play diverse roles in cell physiology. Our lab utilizes approaches from soft matter physics, bioengineering, and molecular and cellular biology to interrogate the biophysical principles by which various condensates form, including the nature of sequence-encoded driving forces. This talk will highlight our work on the role of condensates in nuclear organization and gene expression, where droplet-like condensates decorate the genome, and facilitate the flow of genetic information and its dysregulation in disease (3,4,5).

Reference

  1. Clifford P Brangwynne, Christian R Eckmann, David S Courson, Agata Rybarska, Carsten Hoege, Jöbin Gharakhani, Frank Jülicher, Anthony A Hyman (2009) Germline P granules are liquid droplets that localize by controlled dissolution/condensation. Science 324(5953): 1729-1732. DOI: 10.1126/science.1172046.

  2. Yongdae Shin, Clifford P Brangwynne (2017) Liquid phase condensation in cell physiology and disease. Science, 357(6357): eaaf4382. DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf4382.

  3. Joshua A Riback, Lian Zhu, Mylene C Ferrolino, Michele Tolbert, Diana M Mitrea, David W Sanders, Ming-Tzo Wei, Richard W Kriwacki, Clifford P Brangwynne (2020) Composition-dependent thermodynamics of intracellular phase separation. Nature, 581(7807): 209-214. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2256-2.

  4. Marina Feric, Nilesh Vaidya, Tyler S Harmon, Diana M Mitrea, Lian Zhu, Tiffany M Richardson, Richard W Kriwacki, Rohit V Pappu, Clifford P Brangwynne (2016) Coexisting Liquid Phases Underlie Nucleolar Subcompartments. Cell, 165(7): 1686-1697. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2016.04.047.

  5. Shunsuke F Shimobayashi, Pierre Ronceray, David W Sanders, Mikko P Haataja, Clifford P Brangwynne (2016) Nucleation landscape of biomolecular condensates. Nature, 599(7885): 503-506. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03905-5.


Award Lecture

Date Wednesday, February 2nd, 2022
Time 9:10 - 10:35
Place ONLINE
Website https://www.itbm.nagoya-u.ac.jp/istbm-8/#program

Winners

The 7th Tsuneko & Reiji Okazaki Award 2023

Martin Jonikas (Princeton University, USA)

The 5th Tsuneko & Reiji Okazaki Award 2019

Kay M. Tye (The Salk Institute for Biological Sciences, USA)

The 4th Tsuneko & Reiji Okazaki Award 2018

Cyril Zipfel (University of Zurich, Switzerland)

MORE


<< BACK