Abstract

The spatial organisation of proteins is essential for many intracellular and cellular processes. Intracellular protein patterns organise cell division, cell polarity, and bud-site selection. Condensates of proteins that form on the nucleoid of bacterial cells exhibit self-propulsion and move robustly toward the cell midplane, controlling cell division. Arrays of protein filaments and molecular motors assemble into micellar and foam-like structures. Finally, proteins self-assemble into information-rich aggregates ranging from filaments to complex molecular machines. All these processes have in common that they are driven far from thermal equilibrium by NTPase cycles, chemical reaction cycles that break detailed balance. In this talk, I will report on recent advances in our understanding of these active non-equilibrium processes, focusing on how biochemical and geometric factors regulate them. In addition, I will show that the fields of `active matter’ and `protein pattern formation’ are closely related, both phenomenologically and in terms of their theoretical principles. As an outlook, I will discuss how a deeper understanding of the underlying physical principles might help guide the design of artificial systems with life-like functions.