self-assembly Archives

2025-12-08T15:45:52+01:000000005231202512

3D reconstruction of a flower-shaped liposome showing phase separated “petals” harboring coacervate “buds”. Copyright: The Authors. Published in Chen C. et. al, ACS Nano (2025) by the American Chemical Society. This publication is licensed under CC-BY 4.0 .

2025-12-08T15:45:52+01:000000005231202512

Programmable Compartmentalisation in Synthetic Cells

The formation and regulation of biomolecular condensates is central to many cellular processes and remains a key challenge in the construction of synthetic cells. Researchers from SoftComp partner Wageningen University & Research in... (Read more)

2025-01-27T15:22:01+01:000000000131202501

Figure 1: The formation of stress granules in human cells upon the addition of Sodium Arsenite. Green regions show the location of G3BP, a protein which is known to localise in stress granules. Scale bar: 20 μm. Copyright: Published in Law J. O. et. al., Sci. Adv., 9, eadg0432 (2023) under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

2025-01-27T15:22:01+01:000000000131202501

Unlocking Cell Secrets with Flicker Spectroscopy

Novel Technique to Measure Properties of Sub-cellular Compartments: Scientists from SoftComp partner University of Durham, UK, and other European research institutes have developed a new technique to measure the properties of biomolecular condensates... (Read more)

2025-01-09T12:23:09+01:000000000931202501

Figure: An optical microscopy image of lysozyme crystals in an electric field, with a view of 2x2 mm2. Courtesy of Dr. K. Kang, IBI-4, Forschungszentrum Jülich.

2025-01-09T12:23:09+01:000000000931202501

Electric Fields Shape Protein Crystal Formation

SoftComp partners from Forschungszentrum Jülich and Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf have uncovered the profound effects of electric fields on protein phase behaviour and crystallization. Their research offers valuable insights into how external electric... (Read more)

2022-03-08T18:48:58+01:000000005831202203

The new concept makes it possible to induce complex behaviour in adaptive and communicating soft matter microsystems. Copyright: Avik Samanta

2022-03-08T18:48:58+01:000000005831202203

Towards the Minimalistic Design of Life-like Abiotic Systems

We unravelled polymer-like phase-separation behaviour in multiblock single-stranded DNA which provides an opportunity to fabricate all-DNA protocells with several encoded sequences for post-functionalization with spatio-temporal... (Read more)