Biological condensates, such as the nucleolus and nuclear speckles, facilitate basic cellular functions including ribosome biogenesis and splicing that are often altered during tumorigenesis. The goal of my research is to determine a detailed mechanistic relationship between condensate form and function and how this changes during cellular differentiation and oncogenesis.

During my postdoctoral work, I determined that condensates in cells were composition-dependent, stabilized by heterotypic interactions between biomolecules and, in the case of the nucleolus, facilitated the efflux of assembled ribosomal subunits via an effective thermodynamic proof-reading. This suggests that changes in bio...

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Biological condensates, such as the nucleolus and nuclear speckles, facilitate basic cellular functions including ribosome biogenesis and splicing that are often altered during tumorigenesis. The goal of my research is to determine a detailed mechanistic relationship between condensate form and function and how this changes during cellular differentiation and oncogenesis.

During my postdoctoral work, I determined that condensates in cells were composition-dependent, stabilized by heterotypic interactions between biomolecules and, in the case of the nucleolus, facilitated the efflux of assembled ribosomal subunits via an effective thermodynamic proof-reading. This suggests that changes in biological condensates in tumorigenesis may be useful for understanding the consequences underlying the onset and maintenance of cancer relevant for the development of drugs targeting aberrant biological condensates. To address the connection between oncogenesis and biological condensates, my laboratory will develop new and innovative approaches to determine the principles underlying the form and function of condensates in cells and how they change during oncogenesis.

Specifically, I will investigate:

1. How biological condensates change during transcription factor driven cancers
2. The form and action of aberrant de novo condensates mediated by the induction of fusion oncoproteins

Baylor College of Medicine is an ideal place to establish my laboratory and develop the proposed research projects. I have already coordinated potential collaborations within the Duncan Cancer Center. The immediate goal of this proposal is to determine the consequences to the form and function of biological condensates by the induction of oncogenic proteins characteristic of many cancers. In the long-term, this work will yield fundamental insights into the mechanism by which cancer cells are reliant on condensates enabling novel targets for cancer treatment.

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