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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 7h

Our roadmap on biomolecular condensates made the cover of PRX Life: journals.aps.org/prxlife/ 🎉

Picture showing a schematic of two complex interacting condensates in the background of biomolecules. Image credits: APS/Ella Maru

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Stefan Köstler @stefankoestler2025.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

🚨New Preprint with @zwickergroup.bsky.social ! Phase-separated condensates 🫧 often encounter compositional gradients. We show that these gradients generically lead to surface-tension-driven propulsion even in the absence of surfactants. 📃 arxiv.org/abs/2609.24529

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Our "Roadmap for Condensates in Cell Biology" (doi.org/10.1103/3b2k...) has finally been published PRX Life! 🎉 This forward-looking article summarizes amazing discussions of an interdisciplinary group of scientists at @kitp-ucsb.bsky.social last year.

doi.org

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Mesoscopic Physics of Life (MPoL) @m-pol.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

🚨 New preprint! From protein & RNA condensates to synthetic coacervates and DNA nanostars, vacuoles (dilute pockets inside droplets) show up everywhere. 🫧 We explain when and why they form. 🔬🧫 📄 arxiv.org/abs/2607.25743 w/ @boekhovenlab.bsky.social sky.social @kgoepfrich.bsky.social

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Ani Chattaraj 🇮🇳 has joined our group as a postdoc! Welcome aboard 🎉

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Our latest preprint at arxiv.org/abs/2604.26346 provides insights on chemically active mixtures that can produce mesmerizing patterns, such as this one:

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Ulrich Schwarz @ulrichschwarz.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Friday afternoon and #DPG2026 is over. Like always, a great meeting, well-organized and highly interesting👍This time with France as a guest country and many high-profile speakers from Dresden. Looking forward to #DPG2027 at Regensburg😀

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Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems @mpipks.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

The Division of Biological Physics @mpipks.bsky.social seeks a Research Group Leader in #biophysics, #softmatter physics, or related areas. (Further particulars in the ad.) Apply by the 3rd of April 2026 at pks.mpg.de/bprgl to join us in Dresden!

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Laboratory of Soft and Living Materials @SoftLiv_Cornell @softliv.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

Our second Cornell-era preprint is also out! Kaarthik's paper discusses the gap between cellular and in vitro condensates. In cells, condensates are low-contrast (small partition coefficients), enabling a wide range of responses. Congrats, Kaarthik and the team! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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Karen Alim @karenalim.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Less than two weeks left to apply for a Theory Post-doc on Learning in Biological and Soft Matter with us @TU_Munich. Uncover how flows transport and process information to solve complex tasks. #PhDposition #academicjobs www.bpm.ph.tum.de/join-us/

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EMBO @embo.org · 02/02/2026

The EMBO Young Investigator Network consists of young investigators, installation grantees and global investigators. 🧪 Find more information on the individual programmes here: www.embo.org/the-embo-communities/e… #LifeSciences #research #funding

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Magnus Kjærgaard @proteinmagnus.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

Does targeting enzymes and substrates in a condensate lead to rate enhancement? No. Here, we investigate how the condensate environment can inhibit an enzyme reaction. Spoiler: Mass-transport limitations. We find a strong correlation between diffusion and reaction rates. doi.org/10.64898/202...

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Brugues Lab @brugueslab.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

Really excited to share our new paper in @nature.com! We uncovered how a physical instability of the cytoplasm coupled with the cell cycle drives cytoplasmic partitioning in early embryos #zebrafish #drosophila. Read more in this🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🤩 @poldresden.bsky.social @mpi-cbg.de

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Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems @mpipks.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

You have a background in math/physics/computer science/ML and are looking for an interdisciplinary postdoc fellowship in life sciences with free choice of host groups? Then join us at the CSBD as an ELBE postdoc! The application deadline is the 13 of March

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Lennart Hilbert @lennarthilbert.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Our Mini Review went online last night in Current Opinion in Genetics & Development "Block copolymer concepts of how transcription organizes the stem cell genome" doi.org/10.1016/j.gd... Fig. 1: Stem cell–typical organization of the genome and transcription, and the block copolymer sorting concept.

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Excited to talk to the Matter to Life community about droplets and life!

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Jerelle Joseph @jerelleaj.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

How does protein folding change inside biomolecular condensates? Our new preprint put forwards a framework for predicting this!! 🥳🥳🥳🥳 work by the talented @nathanieldhess.bsky.social

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Andrew Plested @andrewplested.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

"While the concept of condensates is successfully rewriting cell biology textbooks, there is some danger of overhype and backlash." This workshop summary is great - particularly the idea to shift from "Is it a condensate?" to "what problem does that solve?" but "successfully" stood out for me here

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

Our "Roadmap for Condensates in Cell Biology" is now available on arXiv: arxiv.org/abs/2601.03677 🎉 This article summarizes the interdisciplinary weekly discussions we had at our condensate workshop at KITP in the summer of 2025. Feedback is very welcome!

arxiv.org

Roadmap for Condensates in Cell Biology

Biomolecular condensates govern essential cellular processes yet elude description by traditional equilibrium models. This roadmap, distilled from structured discussions at a workshop and reflecting t...

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

We're looking for a postdoc to strengthen our group! Please apply by January 15, 2026 if you're a fun and motivated person who likes theoretical modeling of biological processes by combining analytics and numerics. There is freedom in choosing projects! Details: www.ds.mpg.de/4110032/job_...

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

Since more than a decade, our group has been exploring chemically active droplets, which are exciting since their size can be controlled. Yet, we still do not fully understand this control even in the simplest models. Until a new preprint (arxiv.org/abs/2512.02542) spearheaded by postdoc Guido...

arxiv.org

Size control guidelines for chemically active droplets

Biological cells and synthetic analogues use liquid-liquid phase separation to dynamically compartmentalize their environment for various applications. In many cases, multiple droplets need to coexist...

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Ulrich Schwarz @ulrichschwarz.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

📢 Paper alert 📢 Chirality is known to be important for the movement of microorganisms and active matter. In our new paper out today in @natphys.nature.com, we show that chirality is used by malaria parasites to control their motion patterns: doi.org/10.1038/s415... Here comes a 🧵 ... (1/9)

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

Two more pre-prints from the group 🎉 Riccardo explored how cells could control surface condensates by regulating bulk exchange (arxiv.org/abs/2511.03619). Filipe studied the impact of non-local interactions onto phase separation (arxiv.org/abs/2511.05214). Some more details in the thread:

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

Our review on the physics of phase separation in cells has been published by Rep. Prog. Phys. 🎉 doi.org/10.1088/1361... We hope that the text and citations are helpful for anyone interested in physical descriptions of condensates in cells!

doi.org

Physics of droplet regulation in biological cells - IOPscience

Physics of droplet regulation in biological cells, Zwicker, David, Paulin, Oliver W, ter Burg, Cathelijne

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

Our latest work from a stimulating collaboration with @jerelleaj.bsky.social and @nathanieldhess.bsky.social is out now!

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

A great example of a totally unplanned discovery in our group, spearheaded by a Bachelor and a PhD student! Curiosity wins 🥳

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Noah Ziethen @nziethen.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

New preprint 🎉 What began as Frieder Johannsen’s bachelor thesis in the @zwickergroup.bsky.social (which I had the pleasure to supervise) evolved into our latest paper: “Chemically Active Liquid Bridges Generate Repulsive Forces” — unlike passive ones, which attract. 📄 arxiv.org/abs/2509.18777

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

It was fun to do a little interview and think about the relevance of our work for a more experimental and engineering inclined community.

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Denis Wirtz @deniswirtz.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

We have developed a new workflow to map whole human organs at single-cell resolution, while integrating spatial transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics. We applied this workflow to map precancerous lesions of the fallopian tubes. More here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

In other news, we welcome Mengmeng Wu 🇨🇳 and Lukas Kristensen 🇩🇰 to our group! 🥳 Mengmeng is a postdoc who will combine particle-based simulations with analytical theory to study chemically active droplets. Lukas visits us for three months and will work on anchored active droplets. Welcome aboard! 🎉

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

We were exceptionally effective at finishing manuscripts in the last weeks and couldn't keep up with describing pre-prints here. This thread summarizes the main results of our recent works:

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

This is a great opportunity to start an independent group in one of the best research environments you could think of!

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Daniela J Kraft @danielajkraft.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

Interested in doing a PhD in my group? I have an opening for a PhD student to work on understanding and designing nanomedicine-membrane interactions! Apply here: careers.universiteitleiden.nl/job/Leiden-P...

careers.universiteitleiden.nl

PhD position in understanding and designing nanomedicines-membranes interaction

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Looking forward to discussing our little active droplet theories with students!

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Karen Alim @karenalim.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

Join my team for a PhD in Learning in living adaptive networks (Theory). Apply by October 7th through www.portal.graduatecenter.lmu.de/ocgc/qmb

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

It was a lot of fun to write this little piece on using phase transitions to process cellular information! We probably pose more questions than we give answers, but that’s exciting.

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

Our institute turned 100 years today! We had a fantastic celebration with scientific talks by Howard Stone and Christina Marchetti. 🎉

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

This workshop was just exceptional! Thanks to everyone for making it such a success

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WeberLab@McGill @weber-lab.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

Took us until the end of Week 5 to take a group picture 🤦‍♀️, so we're missing a number of key participants. But what a wonderful group of thoughtful and creative people to talk science with! Thanks for joining us at #KITP! 🤓

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

Glad to see our paper out in press! The long delay to publication emphasizes the role of pre-prints, and I'm happy that people were able to read about our ideas years before they appear in a journal.

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

It's sad that our conference on biomolecular condensates is already over. On the flip side, you can watch almost all talks online to relive the stimulating vibe! Thanks again to all speakers for delivering clear talks, and to the audience for asking great questions!

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

Our conference bringing together theorists and experimentalists to discuss biomolecular condensates started today! Looking forward to three intensive days of stimulating discussion.

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WeberLab@McGill @weber-lab.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

@jerelleaj.bsky.social, master painter 👩🏽‍🎨 of the blackboard 👩🏽‍🏫, in action! 🤩 She is amazing at capturing the essence of our complex, meandering (and sometimes contentious) discussions @kitp-ucsb.bsky.social

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

This was an excellent blackboard presentation of the physics of condensates!

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WeberLab@McGill @weber-lab.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

Shura Grosberg (NYU) gives a fantastic blackboard talk @kitp-ucsb.bsky.social on liquid-liquid phase separation in and out of equilibrium 👨‍🏫

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

It’s been a lot of fun talking about chemically active condensates to such an attentive and motivated crowd!

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Zwicker Group @zwickergroup.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

We updated our pre-print on equilibria in multicomponent mixtures: arxiv.org/abs/2405.01138 In particular, we added the figure below, which shows that such mixtures exhibit countless metastable states between a metastable homogeneous state and the equilibrium with many phases.

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Lucia Strader @luciastrader.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Biomolecular condensates are critical for organizing cellular contents, but most studies focus on phase separation driven by salt, pH, or temperature. But what if intracellular movement also matters? Here, we explore motility-induced condensation in the cell. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

science.org

Active transport enables protein condensation in cells

The force generated by active transport modulates protein condensation.

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