Jerelle Joseph

Research

I study how the cell organises its contents via the process of liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS).

In addition to membrane-bound compartments (such as the nucleus and mitochondria), the cell contains several micro-environments that are not enclosed by physical membranes. These compartments, so-called biomolecular condensates, have been positioned to play key roles in cells, including acting as dynamic reactive volumes and organising the genome. However, the underlying mechanisms that govern the formation and dissolution of biomolecular condensates remain unclear.

I, therefore, develop multiscale approaches (i.e., minimal coarse-grained models and high-resolution sequence-dependent approaches) to investigate the unknown molecular mechanisms that dictate LLPS inside cells.

Previous Research

My previous work encompasses computational studies of proteins---combining tools from statistical mechanics, potential energy landscape theory, and molecular dynamics. Specifically, I have worked on coarse-grained approaches for studying protein folding, intrinsically disordered proteins and large-scale structural rearrangements in proteins.