Mesoscopic Physics of Life (MPoL)

Congrats to Dr.
@ivarhaugerud.bsky.social
who just defended his PhD AND published in PNAS his work studying how droplets influence polymerization of sequences, while, in turn, sequence polymerization affects droplet dynamics! With
@m-pol.bsky.social
+ Dieter Braun

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

We are very proud of Dr. Ivar Haugerud for successfully defending his PhD thesis at the University of Augsburg in December 2025. We wish him all the best in his post-doc position back in Oslo with Prof. Andreas Carlson at the University of Oslo. @uio.no 🥂🍾🎉

Active droplets are fundamental in cell biology and origin of life. With Jonathan Bauermann, @boekhovenlab.bsky.social, Frank Jülicher, and @m-pol.bsky.social, we show that a critical transition influences their size, morphology, ripening and division propensity

journals.aps.org/prx/abstract...

Can prebiotic chemistry harvest energy from cyclic environments?
We explore how oscillating reservoirs can drive chemical systems to extract power. Revealing resonance regimes for optimal harvest.
🔗 arxiv.org/abs/2510.10266

@pranayjaiswal.bsky.social, @ivarhaugerud.bsky.social and Hidde D. Vuijk.

The CECAM workshop “Multiscale modeling of chemically active mixtures” was a fruitful and stimulating meeting — combining deep discussions, new collaborations, and inspiring science. Thanks to beautiful Lausanne for providing the perfect backdrop! 🇨🇭🏔️ @cecamevents.bsky.social

New pre-print with Jacqueline Janssen and Frank Jülicher! We extend the Lifshitz-Slyozov-Wagner (LSW) theory by matter supply, and find a novel universal law governing coarsening kinetics, valid for any constant matter supply in the interface-resistance-limited regime.

📄: arxiv.org/abs/2510.21552

'Liquid shells: A peculiar state':
Will be visiting the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organisation for a Colloquium, discussing the formation of liquid shells using non-equilibrium thermodynamics.
Feel free to drop by or join online. 💧🐚

www.ds.mpg.de/events/41316...

Very much looking forward to the second edition of the ICTP-SAIFR thematic series of schools on biological physics across scales, in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

More information and applications: www.ictp-saifr.org/sbpas2026/

Great days at Frontiers in Nanoscience with @cens-lmu.bsky.social & @crc392molevo.bsky.social! Met new people, reconnected with old collaborators, and enjoyed inspiring talks, posters, and discussions. Hard to beat doing science with a view of Venice from the international university at San Servolo!

Good news in rough times:
Our work on generalising Lifshitz-Slyosov-Wagner (LSW) theory to active systems, led by the all-mighty Jonathan Bauermann, is out on PRL!! Special thanks to Christoph Weber @m-pol.bsky.social and Frank Jülicher.

doi-org.sire.ub.edu/10.1103/f5x9...

Another pre-print from our group see's the light of day! 🎉 This time we how the coarsening of droplets is affected by advection and reactions: arxiv.org/abs/2510.00827 @stefankoestler2025.bsky.social describes our surprising findings in the thread below ⤵️

Also a big congratulations to @larshubatsch.bsky.social, @daxiaosun.bsky.social and all the other recipients of the Independence Accelerator Award. Wish you'll the best in your next scientific endeavours. 🔬📖🤞

www.spp2191.com/independence...

Thanks to the @spp2191.bsky.social and @gbmev.bsky.social for the amazing organisation of the "GBM Compact: Focus on Condensate Biology" Conference and the SPP2191 Satellite Meeting. 🧬💧

Great to see the role of phase separation in the culinary world being recognised. 🧀🍝 A huge congratulations to @gbart.bsky.social and collaborators!

Looking back on the "Emergence and Self-organisation in Biological Systems" conference last month @esbs2025.bsky.social, celebrating the contributions of Prof. Erwin Frey @physicsoflifelmu.bsky.social to the field (and his birthday 🎂). Was a great conference, catching up with lots of familiar faces.

Was super fun to host the Michaels Group from ETH for a collaborative visit last week. 🤝 As a coincidental bonus, we celebrated the Autumn Augsburg Plärrer Folkfestival together with lots of laughs, drinks and great discussions. 🍻

A sneak peak into our yearly summer group retreat with the Comp. Bio Group of Prof. Nadine Schwierz and the Stat. Physics of Life Group of Prof. Abhinav Sharma in Sion, Switzerland. Was a great chance to spend time in nature, and to share and discuss exciting new collaborations. ☀️⛰️🫕

Controlling Multiphase Coacervate Wetting and Self-Organization by Interfacial Proteins Biomolecular condensates help organize biochemical processes in cells and synthetic cell analogues. Many condensates exhibit multiphase architectures, yielding compartments with distinct functions. Ho...

Excited to share our new JACS paper "Controlling Multiphase Coacervate Wetting and Self‑Organization by Interfacial Proteins"
Together with our fantastic collaborators @spruijtlab.bsky.social l we show how surface-active proteins tune condensate architecture and organization.

David @zwickergroup.bsky.social gives the first tutorial of the biomol25 program @kitp-ucsb.bsky.social, reminding us that phase equilibria and chemical equilibria are coupled by thermodynamics

Shura Grosberg (NYU) gives a fantastic blackboard talk @kitp-ucsb.bsky.social on liquid-liquid phase separation in and out of equilibrium 👨‍🏫

How can a cell control the size of its organelles?

Excited to share a mechanism to control droplet size we recently found.

a 🧵

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

"Chemically Active Wetting" is now published! 📖
We explore what happens when wetting meets out of equilibrium binding: Active binding shapes droplets like charges shape electrostatic fields - giving rise to pancake- or mushroom-shaped droplets. 🧪💧
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

@pranayjaiswal.bsky.social just got back from presenting a poster at the @physicsoflifeuk.bsky.social conference in Harrogate, with some great conversations and feedback (and even great weather this time round ☀️). A big thank you to the organisers.

Was a super fun and competitive day in the Physics Faculty at the University of Augsburg, with the yearly Futsal Institute Cup taking place again. Thanks to everyone who played, contributed and cheerlead. 🎉 👏 Looking forward to next years event! ⚽

This summer in beautiful Santa Barbara we will run a 3-day conference on “Biological Physics of Biomolecular Condensates: Bridging Theory and Experiment” June 16 to 18th. Register now: www.kitp.ucsb.edu/activities/b...

Registration has started for the conference "Emerging Trends in the Physics of the Cell" in memoriam of Erich Sackmann at TU Munich from October 15-18 2025 www.cpa.tum.de/cpa/conferen...

Was a great week at the #DPG Spring Meeting in #Regensburg this year! With a lots of great talks and posters from the community. @advait-thatte.bsky.social, Susanne Liese and Christoph spoke about some of the research done in our group. Looking forward to next year's meeting! 🧪🔬

We are organizing a conference for young researchers at the intersection between physics & biology: www.embl.org/about/info/c... @embl.org @events.embl.org @intcha.bsky.social
Please consider applying/registering -- the deadline is already in one week!