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Presenting on “Programming and probing the self-assembly of intrinsically-disordered proteins”.

Felipe Quiroz, PhD, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Georgia Tech, will speak on Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023 at 10 a.m. CST in Whitaker Hall, room 218.

Abstract: Intrinsically-disordered proteins (IDPs) recently emerged as major drivers of self-assembly in nature. Mechanistically, their stimuli-responsive solubility in aqueous solutions is governed by liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) dynamics. Intracellularly, for example, phase-separated IDP-assemblies orchestrate wide-ranging cellular mechanisms, from genome organization to cell division. These bioinspired insights suggest that IDPs are outstanding building blocks for cellular engineering and for the design of self-assembling “smart” materials. In this talk, I will present our progress toward programming and probing the LLPS behaviors of intrinsically-disordered proteins (IDPs), demonstrating their utility as self-assembling nanomaterials and as scaffolds for engineered organelles. I will highlight our two main approaches: (1) the engineering of lower and upper critical solution temperature LLPS behavior in IDP polymers; and (2) the development of genetically encoded sensors to probe the properties and functionality of intracellular IDP-assemblies and related biomolecular condensates. Dwelling in materials engineering, I will discuss how the syntax and architecture of IDP polymers control their ability to access novel LLPS behaviors, enabling the engineering of IDPs that form highly stable nanoparticles. Finally, I will discuss LLPS-inspired cellular engineering approaches for biomedical applications. Overall, my goal is to demonstrate the sequence-level control of IDP self-assembly as a powerful approach for biomedical engineering innovation.

Registration is required to attend virtually. Please register.

  • Ushasi Pramanik
  • Anirban Das
  • Erica Marquez
  • Gerson Moreno Romero

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