Putting the bio in bioengineering

Celeste Nelson finds beauty in all living organisms.

Inspired by an organism’s unique forms, she is drawn to the compelling images produced during the course of her research on tissue and organ development.

“My group is focused on trying to understand how populations of cells build the beautiful structures we see in our bodies and destroy those during disease,” said Nelson. She is the principal investigator in the Tissue Morphodynamics Laboratory and her work has implications for illnesses such as asthma and cancer.

The profile video shown above, produced by Princeton's Office of Communications, features Nelson's research as well as the human side of her life and work.

A brief history of phase separation

For more than a century, biologists ignored a fundamental question about how cells do the business of sorting molecules in a crowd. Then came Cliff Brangwynne, whose surprising work showed that certain proteins separate into globules much like droplets of vinegar suspended in oil. The finding, which revived previously dismissed ideas about biophysical mechanics, launched a new paradigm in cell biology: liquid-liquid phase separation.

Brangwynne has since become associate professor of chemical and biological engineering at Princeton, opened his lab, dubbed the Soft Living Matter Group, and greatly expanded the scope of his original discovery. With the development of new tools and a recent surge in biomedical and pharmaceutical translations, the frontier looks to be expanding rapidly.

A 14 March news feature in the journal Nature outlines the history, impact and current outlook of Brangwynne’s work.