Our research seeks to understand how cells reorganize molecular interactions in response to stress and aging. Many adaptive changes involve dynamic reorganization of the cytoplasm and nucleoplasm into membraneless assemblies and higher-order interaction networks. We investigate the molecular principles that regulate their formation, reversibility, and control, asking how multivalent interactions are kept dynamic under normal conditions yet allowed to stabilize when needed. Our work suggests that cells actively maintain interaction networks in soluble, regulated states through continuous turnover and quality control, a balance that deteriorates with age, leading to misfolding, aggregation, and disease. By combining biochemical reconstitution, quantitative cell biology, and biophysics, we aim to uncover general principles governing cellular organization and its breakdown in aging and neurodegeneration.

Simon Alberti is Professor and Chair of Cellular Biochemistry at the Technical University Dresden (BIOTEC, CMCB). He received his PhD in Biology from the University of Bonn in 2004. In 2005, he joined the laboratory of Susan Lindquist at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research (Cambridge, USA), where he studied prions, amyloids, and protein-based inheritance. From 2010 to 2019, he led a research group at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, focusing on protein quality control and the molecular principles underlying cytoplasmic organization.

Professor Tuomas Knowles is the 1920 Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, and is co-director of the Cambridge Centre for Protein Misfolding Diseases. He is also a Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge. He is the recipient of a number of international prizes, including the Sackler Prize in Biophysics and the Corday-Morgan Prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry. Knowles’ research focuses on understanding, controlling and designing protein systems. His research brings together physical sciences and life sciences to address key problems in human and planetary health. He has a track record of developing new technologies for healthcare applications, and was the Cambridge Enterprise Academic Entrepreneur of the year in 2019 and has founded several biotech companies.

Dr. Mittag received her PhD from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, where she used NMR spectroscopy to characterize multistep protein-ligand binding mechanisms. She trained as a Postdoctoral Fellow with Julie Forman-Kay at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, where she revealed how a highly dynamic complex with several interconverting interfaces can encode a cell cycle switch. She joined the Department of Structural Biology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in 2010 and became a Full Member in 2021. Her lab uses a spectrum of biophysical, biochemical and cell biological tools to elucidate the mechanism underlying phase separation and its roles in physiological and pathological processes. She was awarded the Michael and Kate Bárány Award for Young Investigators from the Biophysical Society (2021) for her rigorous and foundational contributions to the field of macromolecular condensates and their biological relevance. In 2025, she was named a Fellow of the Biophysical Society for transformative advances on the mechanisms responsible for molecular recognition and phase separation of intrinsically disordered proteins.

Before becoming the Founding Dean of the School of Life Sciences, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) at the end of 2020, Prof Zhang was a Kerry Holdings Professor of Science, Senior Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study, and Chair Professor in the Division of Life Science, HKUST. Research in Prof. Zhang’s laboratory has been focusing on molecular basis governing neuronal synapse formation and plasticity in the past 30 years. Their breakthrough discovery on phase separation-mediated synapse formation and plasticity has far reaching implications in basic as well as translational research in neuroscience.

Ellen Adams is a physical chemist and group leader at the Cluster of Excellence Physics of Life at TU Dresden and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf. Her research explores the physical chemistry of biomolecular condensates, focusing on how protein–water interactions and hydration dynamics influence liquid–liquid phase separation and the material properties of condensates. Using advanced spectroscopic methods, including terahertz and nonlinear optical spectroscopy, her work provides molecular-level insight into how solvent environments regulate biomolecular organization in cells.

Prof. Bian Liming is currently a Changjiang Scholar Professor and the Associate Dean in the School of Biomedical Sciences and Engineering at the South China University of Technology after serving as a tenured professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Prof. Bian completed his Ph.D. study in Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University in 2009. Prof. Liming Bian then conducted his postdoctoral research in the Department of Bioengineering, the University of Pennsylvania from 2009 to 2012. Prof. Bian’s research focuses on the development of multiscale biomaterials not only for investigating the role of biophysical and biochemical cues of biomaterials on cellular behaviors but also for the development of new therapeutic strategies. Prof. Bian’s research work has been published in the leading journals including Science Translational Medicine, PNAS, Nature Chemistry, Nature Communications, Science Advances, Advanced Materials, JACS, Angew Chemie, etc. Prof. Bian is a fellow of IUSBSE (FBSE). Prof. Bian serves as the associate editor of APL Bioengineering and editorial member of Biomaterials, ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering, ACS Applied Polymeric Materials, Bone Research, BMEMat.

Yifan Dai is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Center for Biomolecular Condensates at Washington University in St. Louis. He received his B.S. (2017) and Ph.D. (2020) in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Case Western Reserve University.  In 2020-2023, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University.

Since joining WashU in 2023, his group has been working at the interface of physical chemistry and biology, focusing on establishing the fundamental principles and mechanisms of intracellular electrochemistry and developing synthetic biology capabilities for manipulating biomolecular condensates. He was recently recognized by the Forbes 30 under 30, Science 2025. Visit https://sites.wustl.edu/dailab/ for more details about his research.

Biography

Isaac Klein, MD, PhD, is the Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Research and Development at Dewpoint Therapeutics. A physician-scientist and medical oncologist, Isaac leads Dewpoint’s scientific strategy and R&D efforts. He earned a B.S. in Biological Engineering from Cornell, an MD from Cornell, and a PhD in Immunology and Genetics from The Rockefeller University. Isaac completed residency in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and a fellowship in Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, specializing in breast cancer. His postdoctoral research was conducted with Richard Young at the Whitehead Institute at MIT. As a member of Dana-Farber, Harvard Medical School, and MIT, Isaac’s research established the role of biomolecular condensates in gene regulation, oncogenesis, and drug mechanisms. A founding member of Dewpoint’s academic advisory board, he joined the company full-time in 2021 as CSO. In 2022, he was named one of Endpoints News' “20 Under 40” in biopharma.

Blurb about Dewpoint

Dewpoint is a clinical-stage biotech company applying biomolecular condensate biology to develop a new generation of therapeutics. The realization that diverse diseases arise from the dysfunction of condensates has opened new possibilities for modulating undruggable targets. Dewpoint’s platform underlies a drug discovery pipeline that spans oncology, neurodegenerative, cardiopulmonary, and metabolic diseases. Dewpoint has alliances with major pharma companies, including Bayer and Novo Nordisk. Learn more about the company and its science at Dewpointx.com and Condensates.com.

Tingting Li is a Boya distinguished professor and tenured full professor of School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University. She has been granted National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars Program and has been awarded Changjiang Young Scholars by the Ministry of Education. After getting a PhD degree at Department of Automation of Tsinghua University, she started her career in Peking University since 2009. Based on disciplinary knowledge and technologies concerning information, biology and medicine, her team focuses on intelligent analysis and application of biomolecular phase separation, establishing corresponding high-throughput detection methods and data platforms, discovering novel features and constructing multimodal prediction algorithms, as well as building platforms for target identification and computational screening of targeted drugs. She is also a member of the Specialized Committee of Bioinformatics and Artificial Life in Chinese Association of Artificial Intelligence, a member of Specialized Committee of Intelligent health and bioinformatics in Chinese Association of Automation, a member of Specialized committee of Bioinformatics in China Computer Federation, and Vice Chairman of Specialized Committee of Biological Phase Separation and Phase Transition in Biophysical Society of China.

The research of Dr. Cong Liu focuses on protein phase separation and pathological aggregation in neurodegenerative diseases (NDs). In brief, by combining cutting-edge chemical and biological approaches, Dr. Liu revealed the structural basis of protein pathological aggregation in NDs; demonstrated the regulation mechanism of protein aggregation by disease-related chemical modification; explained at the atomic level how small molecules bind to pathological amyloid fibril; developed new strategies of small molecules modulating protein phase separation for therapeutic application. 

Yi Lin is an Associate Professor at the School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, and concurrently serves as a Principal Investigator at both the IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research and the Center for Life Science. Her research program centers on biomacromolecular phase separation, a fundamental biological process that underpins the formation of membraneless organelles and thereby enables the spatiotemporal compartmentalization of cellular functions.

Her work is structured around three core questions. First, she seeks to decipher the molecular principles governing the assembly of membraneless organelles: specifically, identifying key sequence features, structural interactions, and macromolecular interaction networks that drive the formation and dynamic remodeling of these membrane-less subcellular compartments, which are critical for organizing diverse biochemical reactions. Second, her research investigates cell-type-specific phase separation events in the nervous system, with the goal of elucidating their physiological roles in neural development, synaptic plasticity, and adult neural functions. Third, she explores strategies for the reversible modulation of aberrant phase separation, a pathological hallmark associated with aging and neurodegenerative disorders (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), with the long-term aim of developing targeted interventions.

The goal of the Milovanovic lab is to understand how the condensate biology at the synapse enables proper neurotransmission (Sansevrino et al. Trends Neurosci 2023) and why dysfunction of this process leads to the formation of protein-driven inclusions (Hoffmann & Milovanovic J Cell Sci 2023). Specifically, the current research program focuses on two aspects. First, determining the biochemical mechanisms underlying the mesoscale organization of the synapse with special emphasis on the phase separation of synaptic vesicle clusters and associated proteins. Second, characterizing how distinct material properties of protein-driven inclusions trigger neuroinflammation, with the special emphasis on the role of lipids in modulating the pro- and anti-inflammatory response of microglia. Revealing that synapsin‑1 undergoes liquid–liquid phase separation transformed the prevailing view of synaptic organization (Milovanovic et al. Science 2018). Milovanovic lab recently demonstrated that synapsin-1/synaptic vesicle condensates are essential for proper neurotransmitter release in living synapses (Hoffmann et al. Nat Commun 2023) and act as molecular beacons for presynaptic actin organization (Chhabra et al. EMBO J 2025). We discovered that synapsin condensates harbor ion potential at the interfaces (Hoffmann et al. Nano Lett 2023), enabling distinct chemical properties and vesicle mobilities necessary for functional exocytosis (Ogunmowo et al. Nat Neurosci 2025) and condensate-membrane interactions (Hoffmann et al. Mol Cell 2026). The group is currently focused on understanding the sequence determinants that govern the specificity of SV condensates (Hoffmann et al. J Mol Biol 2025) and are responsible for their distinct material properties, which are often altered in neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases (Moors & Milovanovic J Park Dis 2024).

Dr. Wen received a B.S. in Chemistry from Fudan University in 2003 and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2008. In 2009, Dr. Wen joined Fudan University as a Principal Investigator, and focused on the molecular mechanisms regulating cell polarity and neuronal development. Her team has systematically elucidated the role of biomolecular condensates in asymmetric division of neural stem cells, proposing that phase separation regulates the transient establishment of stem cell polarity and stemness transmission. Additionally, her group has uncovered how dysregulated phase separation disrupts intracellular homeostasis, contributing to neurologic disorders. These findings have been published in journals such as Nature Cell Biology, PNAS, Journal of Cell Biology, EMBO Journal, and Nature Communications.

Dr. Xiaoxia Xia is a Distinguished Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, leading a research group in the synthetic biology of protein materials. She earned her Ph.D. in Chemical and Biological Engineering from KAIST in 2009, followed by postdoctoral work at KAIST and Tufts University, returning to China in September 2012. Her research focuses on designing protein-based functional materials, especially biomolecular condensates. She pioneered prokaryotic artificial membraneless organelles, enabling spatial organization of metabolic pathways in bacterial cells. This breakthrough advances synthetic biology and biomanufacturing, enabling efficient biocatalysis, cellular engineering, and metabolic engineering. Her work has led to the development of novel functional materials with broad applications.

Dr. Xia has published over 80 papers in leading journals such as Nature Chemical Biology, Nature Communications, and JACS, with more than 6,000 Google Scholar citations and an h-index of 40, reflecting the broad impact of her research. She holds more than 10 patents, underscoring the translational potential of her work. Actively engaged in the international scientific community, she serves as an editorial board member of ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering and Biotechnology Journal. Her interdisciplinary approach and innovative contributions have established her as a leading figure in synthetic biology.

Jing Yu is a Tenured Associate Professor in the Mechano-X Institute at Tsinghua University and a recipient of the National Overseas High-Level Talent Program. Jing obtained his Bachelor's degree from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Tsinghua University in 2007 and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) in 2012. He subsequently conducted postdoctoral research at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the University of Chicago/Argonne National Laboratory. In 2017, he joined the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). In 2019, Jing was awarded the Singapore National Research Foundation (NRF) Fellowship. He was promoted to Tenured Associate Professor at NTU in 2023. In 2024, he joined Mechano-X at Tsinghua University. Jing is an Associate Editor of ACS Applied Polymer Materials. Jing’s long-term research focuses on the interface of polymer physical chemistry and biomacromolecules, with an emphasis on the multi-scale, dynamic condensation and assembly processes of biomacromolecules and their physicochemical properties.