Research

Homeostasis in living systems

Chemical composition in cells is regulated by many processes. For instance, the Lands’ cycle is responsible for the transformation of fatty acids, and in turn, of lipids in various membranes. Cellular environments are usually complex, and changes in levels of one components can affect the others. We are interested in this coupling, which may result in a regulation-structure coupling. In the context of asymmetric membranes, we have shown that the complex lipodomes may be controlled by only a few variables. This is, in principle, applicable to proteins, e.g. for protein levels in cells or post-translational modifications.

Phase behavior of complex systems

Cellular environments are comprised of a multitude of different components. Many of these components show a tendency to phase separate out of solution, forming membraneless organelles. This phase separation appears to be tightly connected to (dys)function in cells. It is therefore natural to ask whether our understanding of phase separation in usual materials, e.g. water/oil or polymers, directly applies to these systems. A particular aspect we have recently focused on, is the finite-size nature of cells, which allows circumvention of usual thermodynamic rules.

Disordered proteins as polymers

We are interested in developing polymer theory for proteins, specifically for mostly disordered proteins. Two projects are funded by the SFB1551. In R1, we investigate coupling between chain environment, and the secondary structure of the IM30 protein. In R12, we investigate whether block co-polymer models are appropriate for proteins. We are also generally interested in how polymer chain properties, e.g. sequence, are related to chain conformation and phase separation.