Embedded Files
Overview: Cellular Physical Chemistry Group
Cells organize their biochemistry by clustering biomolecules into membrane-less organelles, also known as biological condensates. These dynamic assemblies behave like liquids yet are far more complex than simple droplets such as oil in water—they contain dozens to hundreds of distinct molecules and host a wide range of active biochemical processes. We are excited to measure and understand this complexity, uncovering how cells have evolved it for function, how cancer hijacks it, and how its emergent behaviors may reveal new physics that underlies life itself.
The Cellular Physical Chemistry Group (Riback Lab) seeks to uncover the physical principles and biological roles that govern condensates inside living cells. We develop quantitative, microscopy-based frameworks to describe how condensate structure, composition, and dynamics change as cells remodel themselves—during differentiation, oncogenic transformation, and aging.
Condensates in Disease
Condensates that normally coordinate biochemical pathways can become pathogenic organizing centers when their composition or dynamics are altered.
We investigate how oncogenic mutations and cellular stress remodel condensate structure and function, leading to misregulated gene expression and transformation.
By linking the physics of condensate formation to the biology of cancer and aging, we aim to identify principles that explain both how cells maintain order and how that order fails in disease.
Microscopy & Quantification
Our lab develops quantitative microscopy and analysis frameworks to measure molecular interactions and organization inside living cells.
Using advanced imaging, we extract physical parameters such as concentration gradients, partition energies, and transport dynamics to connect what we see to what the cell is doing.
These approaches bridge the gap between molecular structure and mesoscale behavior, allowing us to test physical models directly in biological systems.
Structure & Energetics
Cells are organized by networks of weak molecular interactions that give rise to emergent structures.
We combine physical chemistry and polymer physics to understand how these interactions generate the thermodynamic forces that drive biomolecules to assemble into condensates.
By quantifying the energetics of molecular partitioning and the organization within condensates at nanometer resolution, we aim to define the physical laws that shape living matter and determine how these laws are tuned—or disrupted—by cellular context.
Google Sites
Report abuse