Tasdiq Ahmed

PhD Thesis Proposal Presentation

Date:8/30/2021
Time: 2-3:30pm EST
Location / Meeting Link: https://bluejeans.com/802578719

Committee Members:

Shuichi Takayama, Ph.D. (Advisor)

Felipe G. Quiroz, Ph.D.

Philip J. Santangelo, Ph.D.

Blair K. Brettmann, Ph.D.

Wei Zhou, Ph.D.

Title: Principles of multipolymer phase separation and their intracellular implications

Abstract: Phase-separated aqueous polymer mixtures have been known for more than a century, yet little research has been performed on systems incorporating three or more polymers. As liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) is found to be increasingly important in health and disease, proper characterization of multiphase systems is essential, as they may guide future therapeutic strategies. Biomolecular condensates are often composed of more than two biomacromolecules, and experiments performed on two-polymer systems may not provide enough insight into their complex nature. Likewise, current models of early cells do not take into account the abundance of polymers in nature, and thus fail to answer the arguably greater question of how life formed. The objective of this proposed work is to address these limitations. This is accomplished by 1) constructing a 3D phase diagram for a three polymer system that informs of characteristics such as volume ratio, or behavior such as fibrillation; 2) generating synthetic polymer double emulsions via microfluidics, to not only validate aim 1 but to also replicate nuclear structures and engineer nuclear processes into protocells; and 3) characterizing a bona fide multiphase condensate—the nucleolus—so as to extract the conditions that differentiate between normal and cancerous states, and replicate this in our protocell model. Through the completion of these aims, we expect to not only advance the field by thoroughly characterizing an aqueous three-polymer system for the first time, but also apply it to molecular biology, early life studies and cancer.