Molecular Mechanisms of Functional Phase Separation

SPP2191

The DFG established this priority programm in 2019. It is divided in two phases, each with a 6 Mio Euro budget. Phase 2 started in 2022 and runs until 2025.

Here you can find all the funded projects sorted into 1st (2019 – 2021) and 2nd (2022 – 2024) funding period as well as important information about each PI, and whether he/she has an open position in their project.

Discover our latest posts

Annual SPP2191 Meeting in Dresden: September 24 – 28, 2023

October 4, 2022

We have invited all members of the SPP2191 of the first and second funding phase to our 2023 meeting at the Technische Universität Dresden. Preceeding this there will be a co-worker

Women in Science Workshop “Self-Leadership for scientists – look within to succeed”

September 5, 2022

A workshop uniquely tailored for female PhD students and postdocs taking place in the Swiss Alps from November 2 – 4, 2022. The participants will learn skills that lead to

Kickoff Meeting for the Second Funding Phase from May 30 – June 1, 2022

May 11, 2022

A 2,5 day meeting in Northeim to get to know new projects and connect within the network.

Registration for EMBO/EMBL symposium on 09.-12.05.2022 now open!

November 29, 2021

Don’t miss the opportunity to register for this exciting event: https://www.embl.org/about/info/course-and-conference-office/events/ees22-04/

Call for Proposals

October 25, 2021

Priority Programme “Molecular Mechanisms of Functional Phase Separation” (SPP 2191) In March 2018, the Senate of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) established the Priority Programme “Molecular Mechanisms of

NEWS on Condensate Colloquium Series

June 9, 2021

Happy to announce that a new virtual Condensate Colloquium Series (CCS) will get underway as of Tuesday July 06, 2021 – be invited to join! Visit https://spp2191.com/condensate-colloquium-series to find the

Tweets by SPP2191

Projects 2019-2021

The following projects are part of the first funding period

Temperature-dependent phase separation of RNA binding proteins in chloroplasts

Background: Plants as sessile organisms cannot run when challenged by environmental stress, including temperature stress. Instead, they have developed a…

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Phase Separation driven Heterochromatin Formation as a Regulatory Mechanism for Repeat Silencing and Cellular Differentiation

Pericentric heterochromatin in mouse and Drosophila assembles via heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1) in a self-organizing manner into distinct nuclear subcompartments…

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Mechanisms of biomolecular condensation in bacterial ribosomal RNA transcription

Background: Subcellular organization via biomolecular condensation in prokaryotes has recently gained momentum with the demonstration that the fundamental process of…

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Dissecting the principles guiding CTCF condensate formation in cellular ageing

Background: Exhaustion of the replicative potential of human cells signals their commitment to an irreversible state of cell cycle arrest…

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Condensation of Ribosomal Proteins in Ribosome Biogenesis and Neurological Ribosomopathy

The formation of membrane-less cellular compartments by liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) relies on the unique physico-chemistry of molecules. These biomolecular…

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Molecular mechanisms of physiological and aberrant phase transitions

The Alberti and Seidel teams will join forces to investigate the conformational dynamics of Fused in Sarcom (FUS) in vitro…

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Phase Separation of Ki-67 during Mitotic Exit

Recent studies have demonstrated that membrane-less condensates assemble by liquid-liquid phase separation of proteins that share multivalency, intrinsic disorder and…

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Conformational Selection in Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation: Protein folding and aggregation pathways in the cytoplasm and stress granules

Phase separation is considered a crucial process in disease progression, since proteins involved in amyloid-associated pathologies, like FUS, play also…

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Molecular Mechanisms of Functionally Distinct Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation of Drosophila Loqs, Ago2 and dsRNA

Small RNA silencing serves to regulate genes but also as a defense against pathogens and selfish genetic elements. In insects,…

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Phase Separation of Membrane Scaffolding Proteins as a Mechanism to Control Formation of Tight Junctions

In this project we aim to understand how tight junctions (TJ) assemble into a continuous sub-apical belt in epithelial cells.…

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Molecular Basis for the Central Role of the DEAD-Box Helicase Dhh1 in the Formation and Function of Processing Bodies

Processing-bodies (P-bodies) contain the machinery that is involved in 5ʼ to 3ʼ mRNA degradation. This includes the DEAD box RNA…

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Dissecting the Nuclear Pore-Like Permeability Barrier Function of Phase Separated Liquid FG Nucleoporin Condensates

The nuclear pore complex (NPC) is a ~120 MDa complex built from multiple copies of ~30 different nucleoporins (Nups). The…

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Condensate Colloquium Series

Biweekly virtual series on Intracellular Phase Transitions and Biomolecular Condensates. Here you will find all info about the speakers and the zoom links for the upcoming seminars.

Those interested to join the CCS mailing list to receive the seminar links and updates via email can subscribe here:

The upcoming Seminar

Be invited to join and hear from a diverse set of speakers and to participate in discussions!