We produced micrometer-sized RNA viscoelastic compartments formed by RNA “nanostars”, motifs that fold from a single short RNA molecule (120-300 nt) and interact through loop-loop bonds. Building on previous work with @dimichelelab1.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...
New from us in @pnas.org :
We considered the limits of condensate diversity, and engineered DNA droplets to form 9 distinct, homotypic, coexisting phases. Very hard to do this except with nucleic acids. Probably you can make more than 9. (1/3)
Particularly proud that the paper includes five undergraduate students from UCLA & Pasadena City College!
Protein and RNA-based condensates have emerged as biologically important alternatives to classical membrane-bound organelles. Here the authors design pure RNA condensates from nanostructured, star-sha...