Image 1 of 1
Short Biography
Felix Roosen-Runge is an Associate Professor in the Division of Physical Chemistry at Lund University, Sweden. His research addresses dynamics, structure and assembly in soft and biological matter by combining X-ray, light and neutron scattering methods with coarse-grained modeling and data science. The most recent research activities are centered around proteins from sustainable plant sources, with the aim to understand processes such as protein extraction and hydrogel formation better from a physicochemical and soft matter perspective.
AMBER postdoctoral fellowship Project (Fifth call)
General conceptual understanding of protein liquid-liquid phase separation
Protein-rich biocondensates of intrinsically disordered proteins have in the last decade excited a very active research field, due to many potential connections of physicochemical phase behavior to biological function in the intracellular medium. While experimental, simulational and bioinformatical accounts are very widespread and getting increasingly established, a more fundamental understanding in terms of soft matter and complex liquid concepts is still largely missing. Importantly, the related liquid-liquid phase separation has a long history in globular protein solutions, e.g. in the eye-lens fluid and antibody solutions, which resulted in a number of fundamental and general results not yet available for intrinsically disordered proteins.
Within this postdoctoral project, we aim for a comprehensive conceptual understanding of liquid-liquid phase separation in protein solutions, and related phenomena such as equilibrium cluster phases and arrested phase separation. We plan for theory-oriented work, combining analytical modeling based on liquid theory and coarse-grained simulations to explain experimental phenomenology. Connection to experimental work is explicitly encouraged, and active involvement in experiments can also be included into the project, if desired.
The project will be run in collaboration of different groups, including in particular Assoc. Prof. Felix Roosen-Runge and Prof. Anna Stradner (Division of Physical Chemistry, Lund University) as main supervisors. Connections to other experimental and simulation groups within Lund University and the COMMONS excellence center for biomolecular assembly are possible and encouraged. Please reach out to felix.roosen-runge@chem.lu.se for more information and discussion on potential project ideas.
Location: Lund, Sweden
Organisation: Lund University, Faculty of Science, Department of Biochemistry and Structural Biology
Links
Felix Roosen-Runge's profile in Lund University Research portal
Physical Chemistry's profile in Lund University Research portal