Jülicher Group
Physics of Active Droplets
Phase separation provides a general mechanism for the spatial organization of cellular structures and for the compartmentalization of chemical processes. Using theoretical approaches, we develop concepts and general aspects of the dynamics of liquid-like phases and study droplets in cells and of chemically active artificial droplet systems. Such concepts shed light on the structure and organization of membraneless compartments such as centrosomes and germ granules in cells and on how chemical reaction can control the assembly, the size and the position of such systems.
A particularly interesting example of active droplet physics is the spontaneous divisions of droplets driven by chemical processes which could provide a minimal model for prebiotic protocells that are able to undergo cycles of growth and division.
Publications of Frank Jülicher in MaxSynBio
1.
Shambaditya Saha; Christoph A. Weber; Marco Nousch, Omar Adame-Arana, Carsten Hoege, Marco Y. Hein, Erin Osborne-Nishimura, Julia Mahamid, Marcus Jahnel, Louise Jawerth, Andrej Pozniakovski, Chistian R. Eckmann, Frank Jülicher, Anthony A. Hyman
Polar Positioning of Phase-Separated Liquid Compartments in Cells Regulated by an mRNA Competition Mechanism
Cell
2.
Wueseke, O., Zwicker, D., Schwager, A., Wong, Y. L., Oegema, K., Jülicher, F., et al.
Polo-like kinase phosphorylation determines Caenorhabditis elegans centrosome size and density by biasing SPD-5 toward an assembly-competent conformation
Biology Open
Further Selected Publications of Frank Jülicher
3.
Zwicker, D.; Seyboldt, R.; Weber, C. A.; Hyman, A. A.; Jülicher, F.: Growth and division of active droplets provides a model for protocells. Nature Physics 13 (4), pp. 408 - 413 (2016)
4.
Seyboldt, R.; Jülicher, F.: Role of hydrodynamic flows in chemically driven droplet division. New Journal of Physics 20 (10), 105010 (2018)
5.
Mietke, A.; Jülicher, F.; Sbalzarini, I. F.: Self-organized shape dynamics of active surfaces. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 116 (1), pp. 29 - 34 (2018)