Nanoblog

Liquid-Liquid phase separation (LLPS) is a recently emerging and fascinating concept of cellular organization. LLPS describes the physical principle of spontaneous de-mixing of a multi-component system (solution) into multiple spatially separated liquid phases of high respectively low density. Cellular structures formed by LLPS are commonly referred as membrane-less organelles (MLOs) and are thought to play a key role in the spatial-temporal orchestration of complex biochemical reactions in cells. Our Lab tries to understand how a particular group of proteins, the Dead-Box ATPases (DDXs), regulates LLPS and the formation of MLOs from a bio-physical/chemical and cellular point of view.

We are looking for a student interested in microfabrication and 3D-printing for
neuroscience applications to join our team on a collaborative project aimed at developing
novel microfluidic axonal guidance devices for the modeling of Parkinson’s disease. This
highly interdisciplinary project is led by Kirkeby group (reNEW, University of Copenhagen)
in collaboration with groups of Jenny Emnéus (DTU Bioengineering) and Stephan Keller
(DTU Nanolab). The work will be focused on further advancement and optimization of 3D-
printed soft lithography method our team developed for the fabrication of
compartmentalized axonal guidance devices. This includes creating novel device designs,
optimization of silicone ink rheology, and scaling up device fabrication towards high-
throughput formats. The student will work closely with other members of our team on
optimizing culturing conditions of human stem cell-derived dopaminergic neurons,
astrocytes, and microglia in 3D-printed devices.