BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Polymer Assisted Condensation: How polymers can control and locali
 ze liquid-liquid phase separation - Jens-Uwe  Sommer (Leibniz Institute of
  Polymer Research Dresden)
DTSTART:20231013T125000Z
DTEND:20231013T133000Z
UID:TALK204934@talks.cam.ac.uk
DESCRIPTION:Jens-Uwe Sommer1\,2\,3\, Holger Merlitz1 and Helmut Schie&szli
 g\;el2\,3\n&nbsp\;\n1Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden\, Germa
 ny2Institute for Theoretical Physics\, TU Dresden\, Germany3Cluster of Exc
 ellence &ldquo\;Physics of Life&rdquo\; TU Dresden\, Germany\n&nbsp\;\n&nb
 sp\;\nLiquid-liquid phase separation of proteins is increasingly recognize
 d as a fundamental concept to understand biological functions. Biomolecula
 r condensates are formed at specific places in the cell\, but what control
 s their size and life-time\, and by which mechanisms different condensates
  interact or exchange material (and possibly information) with each other 
 as well as with the environment is still largely unexplored. We introduce 
 polymer-assisted condensation (PAC) which can explain the formation of loc
 alized and size-controlled condensates using concepts from polymer physics
  and phase separation theory. Our work\, consisting of mean-field theory a
 nd simulations\, highlights the role of meta-stable states of multi-compon
 ent solutions near the miscibility gap which can be switched into condense
 d states triggered by a weak attractive interaction with a polymer. A sign
 ificant change in interaction strength between proteins and polymer leaves
  the properties of the polymer-assisted condensate nearly invariant\, and 
 fluctuations in the concentration of the proteins outside the condensate a
 re buffered which makes polymer-assisted condensates to be robust against 
 variation of environmental factors. As an example we consider the case of 
 hetero-chromatin. Here\, the features of PAC provide a rational basis to e
 xplain preservation of epigenetic information during the cell cycle.\n&nbs
 p\;\nJ.-U. Sommer\, H. Merlitz\, H. Schie&szlig\;el\nPolymer-Assisted Cond
 ensation: A Mechanism for Hetero-Chromatin Formation and Epigenetic Memory
 \nMacromolecules 55\, 4841 (2022)
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Newton Institute
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR