What is it about?
Inside cells, liquid-like biomolecular condensates often come into contact with membranes. In this work, we show that forces generated at the condensate interface can strongly deform membranes and drive major shape changes. Our results help explain how condensates may contribute to the formation and remodeling of membrane-bound structures in cells.
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Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Biomolecular condensates are increasingly recognized as key organizers inside cells, but how they reshape membranes remains unclear. Our work identifies capillary forces at condensate interfaces as a direct physical mechanism for membrane remodeling, providing a new framework for understanding these shape transformations.
Perspectives
This research grew out of a collaboration among scientists from Turkey, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan. As a theoretical and computational biophysicist, I found it especially rewarding to see how combining theory, simulations, and in vivo and in vitro experiments can uncover the underlying physical principles of membrane shape transformations at the interfaces of phase-separated condensates.
Amirhoushang Bahrami
Bilkent Universitesi
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Condensate-mediated shape transformations of cellular membranes by capillary forces, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, March 2026, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2424126123.
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