Phase Transitions in Cellular Signaling and Disease

About This Grant

PROJECT SUMMARY Funds are requested to provide partial support for the inaugural FASEB Science Research Conference (SRC) on biomolecular condensates, titled "Phase Transitions in Cellular Signaling and Disease”, to be held from January 11–15, 2026, in Melbourne, Florida, USA. Biomolecular condensation has been recently discovered to be a ubiquitous phenomenon in living systems, supporting normal physiology and driving disease processes, including cancers and neurological disorders. These discoveries have generated immense interest among biologists, chemists, physicists, engineers, and computer scientists to develop an integrated experimental, theoretical, and computational framework to understand phase transition as a mechanism for programming cellular signaling, stress regulation, and genome organization. Aberrant behaviors of condensates have been shown to result in alterations in soluble protein homeostasis, dysregulation of signaling events in the cytoplasm, and activation of oncogenic transcriptional programs in the nucleus. These discoveries have also fueled new directions in drug discovery research, which are currently pursued by biotech and pharma companies. The 2026 conference on biomolecular condensates will feature two keynote lectures, 30 invited speakers and session chairs, including rising stars, and up to 150 attendees. The specific objectives of the conference are to stimulate and enable: 1) scientific knowledge exchange, both among academic researchers and between academia and industry, 2) professional networking and collaboration, and 3) peer mentoring and support for early-career scientists. Besides keynotes, invited and contributed talks, and poster sessions, the program will include a Career Development Workshop for trainees and junior faculty members to address career choices and milestones in a panel discussion format. It will also feature a Meet-the-Expert/Speaker Session covering a range of professional development topics, fostering an interactive platform for knowledge sharing, peer mentoring, and professional networking. Through these activities, this FASEB conference will catalyze new connections between molecular biophysics, cell and molecular biology, cancer biology, neuroscience, and drug discovery communities, enabling exchanges of cutting-edge discoveries and identification of major challenges as the field moves forward.