About
Probing each single biomolecule within its native environment in a living cell can provide intriguing insights into how life works at a molecular level. I would like to devote my career to understanding the fundamental mechanisms of life, and thus I chose to perform research in single-molecular biophysics, the discipline that investigates how individual biomolecules carry out their functions by studying their dynamics and interactions.
Organelles are small cellular compartments that separate biochemical reactions, preventing them from interfering with each other and guaranteeing the efficiency of cellular activities. Many organelles are bound by biological membranes, while many are not. The membraneless organelles (such as P-body, stress granule, centrosome, nuclear speckle, and so on) play an essential role in regulating metabolism, cell signaling, stress response, and gene expression. Biomolecular condensation is a biophysical model for membraneless organelles. The model proposes that membraneless organelles are formed via a physical phase transition from an initial diluted liquid phase into a new condensed liquid phase, and they maintain their boundary with the cytoplasm or nucleoplasm via phase separation.
The role of protein in biomolecular condensation has been widely studied, but that of RNA has not. Therefore, my dissertation thesis aims to fill this gap by using single-molecule tracking in both live cells and reconstituted condensates in vitro to understand RNA’s role in biomolecular condensates.
Research Area(s)
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Single-molecule tracking, super-resolution imaging, RNA biology, and liquid-liquid phase separation/biomolecular condensates
