Organizers: Cliff Brangwynne (Princeton CBE), Mikko Haataja (Princeton MAE), Ned Wingreen (Princeton MolBio)

Phase Transitions have emerged as a powerful and ubiquitous organizing principle within living cells. 2D phase transitions in lipid bilayers have been suggested as a mechanism for organizing membranes and associated signal transduction networks. Intense work has shed light on the properties of these so-called “lipid rafts”, which have been suggested to arise from intracellular membranes being in close proximity to a critical point. More recently, 3D liquid-liquid phase transitions have been shown to occur within the cytoplasm of living cells, and appear to underlie the assembly of various RNA/protein organelles. Much theoretical and experimental work is underway to understand the rules governing these phase transitions, and the way in which they are coupled to RNA metabolism and other biological functions. This topic represents the interface of an exciting area of physics concerning active non-equilibrium systems and the exploding interest in the role of RNA and other molecules in the spatial organization of the cell.