Deciphering and Engineering Organelles without Membranes

In biological cells, multivalent ribonucleoproteins (RNPs) form dynamic membrane-less condensates that play essential roles in intracellular storage and signaling, and are conserved from bacteria to human. Examples include the nucleolus, stress granules, processing bodies, transcription factories, polycomb bodies, and para-speckles. The structure, composition, and fluid properties of these condensates are critical to their diverse cellular functions and are altered in many human diseases. In this seminar, I will present our recent work on the biophysical principles of formation and function of cellular membrane-less organelles. These studies collectively reveal a minimal set of physical rules that govern the self-assembly of multivalent proteins into mesoscopic intracellular organelles with tunable material properties. 

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Dr. Priya Banerjee joined the Department of Physics at UB as an Assistant Professor of Biological Physics in August, 2017. Prior to joining UB, he completed his PhD from SUNY Albany in 2012 and received postdoctoral training from the Scripps Research Institute. Priya's research group at UB studies structure, dynamics and function of biomolecular condensates, which are membrane-less organelles found in bacteria to human. His group has published multiple papers on this topic in the last three years in highly prestigious journals including Journal of American Chemical Society, Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, Nature Communications, and Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences U.S.A. His lab is currently funded by an NIH R21 award, an NIH Outstanding Investigator Award (MIRA/R35) and a Foundation grant from Mae Stone Goode Trust. 

• Time: 11:00 AM
• Location: ZOOM
• Seminar Flyer