Krishna Shrinivas Abstract

Cells are a remarkable example of multiphase living fluids  - billions of proteins and nucleic acids self-organize by phase transitions into diverse coexisting assemblies called biomolecular condensates. How dozens of interacting species in complex environments and subject to non-equilibrium fluxes encode for macroscopic properties remains challenging to decipher. In this talk, I will introduce a framework to predict emergent behavior in multiphase living fluids - drawing on ideas across non-equilibrium theory, statistical physics, and applied mathematics. By integrating phase-field simulations and random-matrix theory, I will first describe a model of fluids with randomly interacting components that exhibits complex yet surprisingly predictable multiphase coexistence. I will subsequently describe how active chemical fluxes can tunably modify emergent phase behavior, even in the absence of compositional changes. Finally, when interactions are partially structured i.e. non-random, I will show that there are statistical constraints on number of steady-state properties. I will conclude by highlighting a few open questions and exciting future directions at the intersection of biomolecular condensates and soft living matter.