{"id":242744,"date":"2026-08-15T01:20:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T06:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/cell-biochemistry-beyond-membranes-condensate-physics-reveals-general-rules-for-chemical-responses"},"modified":"2026-08-15T01:20:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T06:20:07","slug":"cell-biochemistry-beyond-membranes-condensate-physics-reveals-general-rules-for-chemical-responses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/cell-biochemistry-beyond-membranes-condensate-physics-reveals-general-rules-for-chemical-responses","title":{"rendered":"Cell biochemistry beyond membranes: Condensate physics reveals general rules for chemical responses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/cell-biochemistry-beyond-membranes-condensate-physics-reveals-general-rules-for-chemical-responses2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Basic biology courses teach that cells contain organelles\u2014such as the nucleus, mitochondria and Golgi apparatus\u2014set apart by lipid membranes to get things done. Recent cell biology research has revealed another organizational principle at work in cells across all orders of biology.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cProteins and nucleic acids spontaneously organize themselves into blobs called condensates,\u201d said Eric Dufresne, professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences and of materials science and engineering at Cornell Duffield College of Engineering, who is working to understand how condensates work.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2023-01-interfaces-play-important-role-condensate.html?utm_source=embeddings&utm_medium=related&utm_campaign=internal\" rel=\"related\">Droplet-like condensates<\/a> form and dissolve as cells need them, bringing selected proteins, RNA and other molecules together to coordinate biochemical reactions, said Takumi Matsuzawa, a postdoctoral researcher in physics. \u201cTheir timely formation and dissolution are essential for normal cellular function, and disruptions to this process have been linked to neurodegenerative diseases,\u201d including Alzheimer\u2019s and Parkinson\u2019s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Basic biology courses teach that cells contain organelles\u2014such as the nucleus, mitochondria and Golgi apparatus\u2014set apart by lipid membranes to get things done. Recent cell biology research has revealed another organizational principle at work in cells across all orders of biology. \u201cProteins and nucleic acids spontaneously organize themselves into blobs called condensates,\u201d said Eric Dufresne, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,19,38,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-chemistry","category-engineering","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242744\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}