BML is a collaborative and interdisciplinary consortium based at ETH Zurich bringing together biologists, biophysicists, chemists, and material scientists.
The research of the consortium orbits around a new kind of membrane-less compartments within the cell, the so-called biomolecular condensates, sometimes also referred to as droplets.The discovery of these entities has radically changed our understanding of the cell, its organization and dynamics. The emerging picture is that the cytoplasm and nucleoplasm are highly complex fluids that can (meta)stably segregate into membrane-less sub-compartments, similarly to emulsions.
This topic goes beyond the boundaries of traditional disciplines and needs a multipronged approach that levers on, and cross-fertilizes, biology, physical chemistry, biophysics, and soft materials. The main aim of the consortium is to foster interdisciplinary collaborations as well as promote events that are instrumental in developing a proper understanding of the properties and functions of these biomolecular condensates in health and disease, as well as in inspiring the creation of new materials.