Lighting up Intracellular Phase Space

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In this talk I will discuss our work showing that phase transitions play an important role in organizing the contents of living cells. We focus on a class of membrane-less RNA and protein rich condensates, known as RNP bodies, which help control the flow of genetic information within cells. The nucleolus is one such nuclear RNP body, which is important for cell growth and size homeostasis. We've shown that a phase transition model explains many features of nucleolar assembly, and that the internal subcompartments of the nucleolus arise from multi-phase coexistence, which may have important consequences for sequential RNA processing. I will also discuss our new “Optodroplet” approaches, which use light to enable spatiotemporal control of phase transitions within living cells. We are now using Optodroplets to quantitatively map intracellular phase diagrams. This approach has begun to yield rich insights into the link between intracellular liquids, gels, and the onset of pathological protein aggregation.