Rohit Pappu

Rohit Pappu’s lab studies polymeric phase transitions, as well as molecular-level order-disorder transitions to uncover the physical principles underlying spatial and temporal organization of proteins and nucleic acids within cells, the connections between protein phase separation and aggregation in the context of neurodegenerative disorders such as Huntington’s disease and ALS, and the form and functions of so-called intrinsically disordered proteins. Their discoveries are driven by development and deployment of tools from the fields of polymer physics, equilibrium and non-equilibrium statistical physics, computational biophysics, biochemistry, and molecular engineering. Their goal is to uncover fundamental insights regarding biological processes at the molecular and cellular level and leverage these insights into cures for neurodegenerative disorders and cancers as well as applications in materials science and synthetic biology.