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Updated: Oct 4, 2025

Author Spotlight: Evaluation of Protein-Condensate Dynamics in Live Human Cells
Published on: January 5, 2024
Stoichiometry Controls the Dynamics of Liquid Condensates of Associative Proteins
Pierre Ronceray1,2, Yaojun Zhang1,3, Xichong Liu4,5
1Center for the Physics of Biological Function, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.
Abstract:
Multivalent associative proteins with strong complementary interactions play a crucial role in phase separation of intracellular liquid condensates. We study the internal dynamics of such "bond-network" condensates comprising two complementary proteins via scaling analysis and molecular dynamics. We find that when stoichiometry is balanced, relaxation slows down dramatically due to a scarcity of alternative binding partners following bond breakage. This microscopic slow-down strongly affects the bulk diffusivity, viscosity, and mixing, which provides a means to experimentally test this prediction.
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