We are located in the Department of Cell & Developmental Biology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. The Snead Lab combines quantitative microscopy, biochemical reconstitution, cell/molecular biology, and biophysics toolsets to understand how cells sort, package, and ship messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules to their subcellular destinations. We are particularly interested in how biomolecular condensates, concentrated collections of interacting proteins and nucleic acids, mediate mRNA localization. By uncovering fundamental principles that govern mRNA organization in cells, we aim to better understand how this essential process goes awry in cancer and neurodegeneration.