Tony Hyman received the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for discovering a fundamental mechanism of cellular organization mediated by phase separation of proteins and RNA into membraneless liquid droplets at this year’s ceremony.

Our Matter-to-Life PhD student Silja Zedlitz received the Rainer Rudolph Award 2025 at the 77th Mosbacher Kolloquium, the traditional spring meeting of the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (GBM).

This time Akshaye, Daxiao, and Elsa presented their impressive work. We said goodbye to Jie, and he received many warm wishes as he steps into an exciting new role as group leader at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. We celebrated Tony’s appointment as Director General of EMBL.

Our postdoc Theresia Gutmann brought science to the stage at the grand finale of "Beerology." The place was packed at the Mondpalast Bar!

David Kuster successfully defended his PhD with summa cum laude honors.

Theresia received the STS Science Award 2025 at the 28th Meeting on Signal Transduction in Weimar. This award recognizes outstanding research by postdocs

DGZ Meeting 2025 in Heidelberg celebrated 50 years of cell biology. From Tony’s keynote and alumni award lectures to Koichiro’s short talk and Silja’s DGZ Master Thesis Award, it was an inspiring and proud week for our lab.

We’re excited to have you join the team, Smitaroopa!

The Hyman Lab welcomes Iris Smokers, our newest Postdoc.

Last week, Tony delivered a Plenary Lecture at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Korean Society for Molecular and Cellular Biology (KSMCB 2025)

Giacomo Bartolucci et al. from the MPI for the Physics of Complex Systems, also in Dresden, systematically investigated the phase behavior of the sauce.

This combined event brought together leading scientists in the field of condensate biology, fostering exchange across disciplines and highlighting the latest advances in understanding phase separation in health and disease.

Hyman Lab gathered once again for our fourth lab symposium at the MPI Galeria.

This study uncovers how stress granules can promote pathological aggregation of TDP-43 — a key driver of ALS and FTD.

We’re excited to highlight a recent publication in PNAS from Theresia Gutmann and David Kuster of the Hyman lab at MPI-CBG, who uncovered a new immune evasion strategy used by SARS-CoV-2.

she revealed how RNA-binding proteins like MEX-5 modulate phase separation of P-Granules

Hiro has been appointed Associate Professor at Kyoto University and published a landmark paper in Nature Chemical Biology

a long table to bid farewell to two dear members of our lab family

a highly competitive program that supports exceptional early-career scientists eager to expand their research into new fields while working internationally.

...and how their function can be tested by complementation

chill 5Ks before lunch to train for the REWE 5K Challenge

The Hyman Lab welcomes Meline Macher, our newest Postdoc.

A decade ago, artist Prof. Lucy Orta joined our lab and turned cell division into a work of her art. Results were quite impressive!

Our lab traded lab coats for helmets and hit the tracks in Coswig for a gokart showdown!

The 2015 FUS paper was recognized by Cell as one of the most impactful studies of the past decade

We’re super excited to welcome four new faces to our lab!

We were at the EMBL-organized RNA-Binding Proteins (RBP) Conference in Heidelberg.

Exciting changes at the Hyman Lab! Instead of weekly meetings, we’ve launched a full-day symposium.

How does a microscope work? Many kids and adults found out at our institute pond!

Looking to take the next step in your science career? We're hiring! Read on to learn about fully funded PhD positions for 2024.

Years have passed and only "hearsaying" storys about historic Hymanlab retreats roamed the air of MPI-CBG....well that now ended and we made it to the small city of Stolpen near swiss saxony for a couple of days!

The 19th Annual Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences celebrated a breakthrough in cell biology: how membrane-less cellular compartments are formed.

The Corona years have been rough in many labs around the world, so we are especially happy to welcome three new people who have joined our lab in the last few months.

Tony Hyman and Cliff Brangwynne win the world's largest science prize (unofficially dubbed the "Oscars of Science") for discovering a new mechanism of cellular organization.

[German only] Es ist ein sonniger Nachmittag, Anthony Hyman, lässig in T-Shirt und saloppen Schuhen, holt sich schnell noch einen Espresso in der Cafeteria der Lobby desMax-Planck-Instituts für molekulare Zellbiologie und Genetik (MPI-CBG) in Dresden.

Germany's biggest news show. Have a look at the clip in German.

We have been interested in the effects of temperature on organisms for quite a while now in the lab, and that has been to a large extent Mark’s efforts! He took on a very different project to what we were used to and studied the effect of temperature on the nematode Pristionchus pacificus.

We are very happy for Tony! And the whole lab is looking forward to a great celebration!

All the best wishes to your birthday from the whole lab. What a great journey the lab had with you over the (nearly) three decades, first decade at the EMBL in Heidelberg and the last two ones here at the MPI-CBG in Dresden.

NAS membership is a widely accepted mark of excellence in science and is considered one of the highest honors that a scientist can receive. Members are elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

We have to say good bye to Adam and wish him the best of luck for this new job as group leader at the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology in Warshaw, Poland.

This summer, the Hyman lab expands their team with new students on the bachelors, masters, and PhD levels.

The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina elected Tony as a new member. The Leopoldina, founded in 1652, is one of the world’s oldest Science academy and fosters national and international science and advises politics and society in science related questions.

Congratulations to our former postdoc Shovamayee Maharana who moved back to India to the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and now has her own lab!

The Hyman lab is excited to have recently recruited two new postdocs, Anupa and Jik.

Congratulations to Ceciel and all the best for your future!

The organizers of Cell Bio Virtual 2020, an online ASCB – EMBO meeting, invited Tony to give the Keith Porter Lecture. Keith Porter pioneered electron microscopy and employed it in the study of cellular organization.

Amayra Hernández-Vega concluded a 6-year service in the Hyman Lab this November as a postdoc, with an impressive track record of publications and scientific outreach.

The 2021 HFSP Nakasone Award recognises Tony and Cliff for the discovery of a new state of biological matter, namely, liquid-liquid phase separation. Since 2009, the Hyman and Brangwynne labs have observed biomolecular condensation in various cell types and organisms and have helped to determine their functions in physiological and pathological conditions.

The Hyman lab recently recruited new members in different positions and we're delighted to have them join us.

The Hyman Lab held a 1-day-retreat at Schloss Burgk in Freital, Germany, to look back at progress made since last year, how the field of phase separation is taking shape, and the way forward from here.

The Offspring group of the Max Planck PhD net talks with Tony about his carreer in academia and how he founded two BioTech companies. The offspring magazine podcast series is “hosted for doctoral researchers by doctoral researchers.

Patrick McCall, an ELBE postdoc working at the Hyman and Brugués labs, started with a talk on “reverse-engineering biomolecular phases with quantitative phase microscopy”. His goal is to probe the connection between how cells design proteins from a pool of amino acids in native and modified states so that they have the desired properties that drive compartmentalisation.

Tina’s talk “Actin(g) in condensates” exploring how condensates containing globular actin and its regulators WASP and Arp2/3 are regulated. Thomas followed with a rather entertaining talk, “Capillary forces and condensates” on the use of a mathematical formula to explain how FOXA1 condensates bring promoter and enhancer regions of the DNA in close proximity.

The Hyman and Zechner labs are looking for a PhD student to research the control of cellular noise via phase separation.

...and we are happy that Tony got elected as well! Congratulations from the whole lab. The Academy has around 2400 members amd Tony will be one of only 500 international Scientist in the Academy.

Swiss-based NOMIS foundation awarded Tony and the lab $2.5 million for our project "Phase Transitions and Biological Condensates: The Molecular Sociology of Cell Organization"

Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel article of Sascha Karberg about the discovery and applications of phase separation. (German language only)

For the collection celebrating the 65th anniversary of the Journal of Cell biology, our paper Functional Analysis of Kinetochore Assembly in Caenorhabditis elegans was selected for its contribution to “dissecting the mechanics of cell division”.

Tony wins the 19th annual prize together with Clifford Brangwynne of Princeton university and Michael Rosen of the Southwestern University in Texas for their work on defining phase-separated biomolecular condensates.

Recent work from Dresden (2017) suggests that centrosomes are condensates that nucleate in part by concentrating soluble tubulin. Here we show that indeed tubulin is extremely concentrated at centrosome in C. elegans embryos, suggesting that such a tubulin concentration could indeed play a key role in nucleation.

The award to Tony comes from the German Society for Cell Biology for excellent achievements in research and was established in 1990 by the company Zeiss. Tony will lecture on September 27th in Tübingen during the fall conference of the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (GBM)

In ALS, a mutated nuclear protein, FUS (fused in sarcoma), mislocalises to the cytoplasm and aggregates in stress granules. This leads to a liquid to solid transition of the granules and a consequent degeneration of the motor neuron (motor neuron die-back.)

We, past and current members of the Hyman lab, are reeling from the sudden and tragic loss of Suzanne Eaton. She was a wonderful person who lives on in our hearts. In this difficult time, we stand together with her family and colleagues.

One of great things here at the MPI-CBG are our Service and Facilities, among them the protein expression facility (PEPC), which has been heavily used by us in recent years. In collaboration with Jeff Woodruff, a former postdoc, they developed FlexiBAC, an amazingly versatile protein expression system in insect cells, which was developed with a huge range of different constructs and tags, which might fit your needs as well.

The course was organized together with the Tang and Alberti lab, including morning lectures, theoretical or experimental parts during the day and a relaxing evening part. Importantly, we included as well the project ideas of our participants.

In collaboration with the Zechner and Jülicher groups, we now show in theory and experiments that liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) can be a very effective mechanism to buffer protein concentrations against gene expression noise.

Louise and her coworkers now developed a novel method based on optical traps to study the frequency-dependent rheology and the surface tension of P-granule protein PGL-3 condensates as a function of salt concentration.

Choosing a research topic is an important decision at any level. The choice shapes decisions about what graduate lab to join, which post-doctoral position to pursue, how to start an independent lab, and what companies might make good employers.

Former postdoc Zoltan worked with the Whelan lab on VSV (Vesicular Stomatitis Virus). They show liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) seems to play an important role in host-pathogen interactions.

Congratulations to Richard! Check out his website.

This course will provide high quality instruction in the physical chemistry theories underlying biological phase separation, followed by hands on practical training in the assays and cutting-edge techniques used in this emerging field.

In this work, Jie Wang and colleagues worked with a family of prion like proteins (FUS family proteins) and suggest rules that define their phase separation behavior. In cells, FUS family proteins can phase separate into liquid like organelles.

The formation of membrane-less organelles and compartments by protein phase separation is an important way in which cells organize their cytoplasm and nucleoplasm. In vitro phase separation assays with purified proteins have become the standard way to investigate proteins that form membrane-less compartments.

Many age-related diseases affect the nervous system. One prominent example of a neurodegenerative disease is Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The brain tissue of ALS patients typically shows aggregates of so-called prion-like RNA-binding proteins.

The review discusses energetically favourable interactions that could drive condensation, and on the basis of that, make qualitative predictions about how cells may control compartmentalization by condensates.

The Cold Spring Harbor meeting on Protein Homeostasis is taking place from April 17th-21th and Edgar will speak about how Molecular chaperones control the physical state of membrane-less compartments.

By investigating mitochondrial-endosomal contact sites we made the surprising observation that the small GTPase Rab5 translocates from early endosomes to mitochondria upon oxidative stress.

Sina and Adam received both each an EMBO postdoc fellowship as well as a Marie Curie postdoc fellowship. This is a great success for both of them but as well for the lab. And yes, of course we celebrated it…

Tony will be part of the ASAPbio conference on Transparency, Recognition and Innovation in Peer Review in the Life Sciences taking place February 7th to 9th at the HHMI headquarters in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Several aspects of peer review will be discussed in the meeting and importantly, you can follow the conference by live video streaming.

Prions are self-propagating protein aggregates that can be transmitted between cells. The aggregates are associated with human diseases. Indeed, pathological prions cause mad cow disease and in humans Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Ein Forscherteam unseres Hauses hat eine bahnbrechende Entdeckung gemacht, nämlich dass die Gen-Produkte D-Laktat und Glykolat positive Effekte auf angegriffene Zellen haben.

Beginning of December, Tony was as speaker at the doorstep meeting on cell biology of degeneration and repair in the nervous system, as part of the ASCB / EMBO meeting in Philadelphia.

Tony would like to thank the organizers of the EMBO Conference on Quantitative Principles in Biology for the invitation, and for putting together such a fantastic meeting.

Watch our latest video abstract, created by Amayra Hernández-Vega, describing our recent publication in Cell Reports.

The lab went out together to celebrate Tony’s big award! It was a great evening, and you can see a few photos below.

The Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten newspaper ran a story today about Tony receiving the Schleiden Medal! You can read the story online here.

In this work, we show that the protein Tau can phase separate into liquid-like droplets in vitro. These droplets can concentrate tubulin, which enables the polymerization of microtubule bundles that deform the droplets into rod-like structures.

On behalf of the whole Hyman lab, we want to congratulate Tony on this great honor, which recognizes his achievements and outstanding work in the field of cell biology.

Watch our latest video abstract, created by Jeff Woodruff, describing our recent publication in Cell.

Our PhD student Ceciel Jegers has just been awarded a Boehringer Ingelheim Fellowship to pursue her PhD studies on multi-enzyme condensates.

Tony and our postdoc Adam Klosin have written a Nature “News & Views” about chromatin compaction in liquid droplets based on two articles in the latest issue of Nature (Strom et al & Larson et al).

In this work, led by Jeff Woodruff, we used defined components to reconstitute a minimal centrosome in vitro that can nucleate microtubule asters. Our results suggest that the centrosome acts a selective phase that nucleates microtubules by concentrating microtubule polymerases and soluble tubulin.

In a new perspective published in Molecular Biology of the Cell, Tony Hyman and David Drubin “argue that combined advances in genome editing, stem cell production, and organoid derivation from stem cells represent a revolution in cell biology.”

Our article “ATP as a biological hydrotrope” is featured this month as a Journal Club highlight in PNAS! Additionally, ACS Chemical Biology covered the article in its Spotlights section.

The Hyman lab is proud to publish preprints, which we post in parallel to journal submission. You can find our latest manuscripts on bioRxiv, and we welcome your feedback.

You can now read an interview with our postdoc Kate Lee in “Research in Germany”, where she discusses her work on phase transitions and neurodegenerative disease, her decision to move to Europe, and what she enjoys most about working at the MPI-CBG.

New work from the Hyman and Alberti labs uncovers an important role for chaperone proteins in preventing aberrant phase transitions in stress granules. See a brief synopsis below and read the full paper online.

Congratulations to Avinash, Liliana, and colleagues on their paper in Science, in collaboration with Yamuna Krishnan from UChicago!

The L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science International Rising Talents are presented to fifteen promising young women, from each world region (Africa and the Arab States, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America), in order to support and encourage them to pursue their scientific careers.

Yesterday, Tony gave the EMBO Keynote Lecture at the Young Investigators’ Meeting in Goa, India. In his lecture, titled “From zoology to physics — how to avoid staying in your comfort zone,” Tony gave advice on how to be a successful young group leader.

Congratulations to our postdoc Kate Lee, Tony, and co-authors Salman Banani and Mike Rosen of UTSW on their new review

Visit the ASAPbio website to learn about a new proposal to create a Central Service for biology preprints.

The story of our publication in Nature Physics, “Growth and division of active droplets provides a model for protocells,” has been picked up by Quanta Magazine (and re-published in Wired Magazine as well).

Belated congratulations are in order to the authors and illustrators of the cover article for the September issue of Trends in Molecular Medicine!

The latest work in our ongoing collaboration with the lab of Frank Jülicher is now out in Nature Physics.

After Tony’s annual vision talk at our “Lab Day,” everyone gathered for glühwein and cheer at our traditional trip to the Neumarkt Christmas Market. Happy holidays, everyone!

The Hyman lab is proud to publish preprints, which we post in parallel to journal submission. You can find our latest manuscript on bioRxiv, and we welcome your feedback!

Here’s a quick photo from last week’s Hyman lab dinner during ASCB 2016 in San Francisco!

Our brilliant baker and Masters student Stephen helped make the annual safety briefing much more festive this year. Check out his incredible rainbow cake!

Watch the video abstract for Boke et al 2016, “Amyloid-like self-assembly of a cellular compartment,” and see the full post about it on the Science Sketches website

The Hyman lab is represented at the 2016 ASCB annual meeting, taking place now in San Francisco. Come see us if you’re here!

Read the full essay on the importance of funding young scientists, written for the President’s Column of the October issue of the ASCB newsletter by Tony Hyman, Ashad Desai, and Peter Walter.

Watch a video of Tony explaining phase transitions and disease on the new website "Latest Thinking," which is a video collection of researchers explaining their latest breakthroughs.

In new work published this month in Biology Open, Oliver Wueseke, David Zwicker, Jeff Woodruff, and colleagues show that PKL-1 phosphorylation of the centrosome scaffold protein SPD-5 is a key regulatory step which determines centrosome size and density.

Everything you ever wanted to know about our current understanding of cytoplasmic organization by phase separation, from the physics behind it to the consequences for disease, in one comprehensive review

The Hyman Lab welcomes Ceciel Jegers, our newest PhD student. Ceciel comes to us from the Netherlands, and she will be working on phase transitions in cells and disease.

In a collaboration with the group of Frank Jülicher at the MPI-PKS, Shamba Saha and colleagues have discovered that an RNA-competition mechanism is at the heart of correct P granule positioning in C. elegans.

In 1996, when Tony was a group leader at the EMBL, he wrote an essay for Current Biology entitled “No man is an island” on the importance of long-term collaboration and shared credit in science

Read Tony’s interview with Lab Times, in which he discusses peer review, gender equality, open access, and more.

We've bid a sad farewell to our intrepid intern, Jana Sipkova. Jana worked for a year with postdoc Shamba Saha, and she was a fantastic addition to the lab

New work from our postdoc Elisabeth Fischer-Friedrich and colleagues investigates how the mechanical properties of the cell cortex change to prepare cells for division.

In a new talk filmed for iBiology.org, Tony makes the case that funding young investigators is critical to encouraging scientific innovation

Elvan Boke and colleagues propose that the Balbiani body, a non-membrane-bound compartment in vertebrate oocytes, is formed by amyloid-like assembly of proteins containing prion-like domains.

Last week we bid farewell to Mahdiye Ijavi, who was working with postdoc Louise Jawerth to study the physical properties of liquid protein droplets

The 12th meeting of the International Congress of Cell Biology was held in Prague on July 21-25. Many Hyman lab members attended and had a fantastic trip.

If you're in Woods Hole, join Tony, Ron Vale, Jessica Polka, and Daniel Cólon-Ramos for a town hall discussion on preprints in the life sciences @ 4pm in Rowe Auditorium

Congratulations to Mark on his paper in Biology Open examining the genetic link between temperature and fertility in nematodes.

We've been sent some proof that Tony, Jeff, and Richard are hard at work in Woods Hole.

Tony and two of our postdocs, Jeff Woodruff and Richard Wheeler, are there for the Summer Institute.

Here’s a sneak peek behind the scenes at an interview Tony recently did for a new enterprise called “Latest Thinking”

Tony is back from giving a talk on “Aberrant Phase Transitions and Disease” at the Gordon Research Conference on Intrinsically Disordered Proteins in Les Diablerets, Switzerland"DESCRIPTION"

We had two and a half days of lively scientific discussions and fun at the beautiful Pałac Brunów in Lwówek Śląski, Poland.

Ron Vale and Tony just published a "Point of View" essay in eLife: Priority of Discovery in the Life Sciences. Read the full text for free on eLife

The study takes into account job opportunities, income equality, fun and leisure, and crimes against women and ranks the 77 largest cities in Germany accordingly.

The statement advises universities in light of the new rule from the US Department of Labor regarding overtime pay.

We are so proud of our postdoc Kate Lee, one of three winners in the country of the 2016 Women in Science awards from UNESCO and L’Oreal.

Tony answers questions like, “How does the past influence your current thoughts and actions?”; “How can people predict the consequences of what they do?”; and “Is it possible to start over in life?”

Here we examine the behavior of droplets in systems that are maintained away from thermodynamic equilibrium by an external supply of energy.

This work utilizes cutting-edge developments in cryo-electron tomography to produce detailed 3D images of the nuclear periphery, revealing new information about its molecular organization.

Today, Tony and Ron Vale published a white paper on the ASAPBio website in which they discuss the complexities of assigning "priority" for an original scientific discovery.

A recent article from Nature News by Julie Gould discusses the idea of having multiple PhD tracks, one bound for academia, and another so-called “vocational” track which would provide intensive science training for use in non-academic careers.

Here's a short, funny clip that was filmed as part of a movie for the birthday celebration and symposium of MPI-CBG Director Eli Knust.

Tony, Avinash, Jeff, and Shamba had a great time at the ASCB meeting in San Diego last month. Tony and Jeff even managed to get in a surfing session!

The Hyman lab had our annual Christmas market outing. Wishing everyone wonderful holidays and a happy new year!

Tony was interviewed for a recent article in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine, where he discussed how the presence of the xenophobic group Pegida in Dresden is affecting the MPI-CBG.

Will you be there? If so, don’t miss Tony’s talk, and say hello to our lab members who will be there giving talks and presenting posters.

Today, Tony is the final speaker of the Center for Integrative Genomics (CIG) Fall Seminar Series at the University of Lausanne.

A new Science “In Depth” article by Ken Garber tells the story of 4 recent papers (including our publication on the protein FUS) published in Cell and Molecular Cell

This is a truly impressive body of work which globally analyzes protein interactions in order to better understand protein networks and cell organization.

The seminar focuses on "the rapidly changing nature of scientific publishing, peer review, and evaluation," and the impact on science and young scientists.

Yesterday’s Run & Roll event was a huge success! Over 3,000 people participated, including many members of the MPI-CBG, and as a result, €40,000 was raised to open a special clinic for refugees in Dresden and surrounding areas.

Tony gave his annual vision talk, we had lots of great discussions, and then went on a walk around the beautiful Meissen Altstadt (old city).

"Dresden – Place to Be" is an organization committed to creating an open and welcoming culture in our city for all immigrants and refugees.

This fundraiser will specifically raise money to improve the medical care for refugees in and around Dresden. Participants can run/walk the 5.7km course around the Großer Garten in Dresden

Kurz nach die Wende bin ich mit meine Kollegen nach Dresden gekommen mit der folgenden Vision: Können wir Dresden weltweit zu einem der Top-Standorte für Biomedizin entwickeln?

Tony is a member of the steering committee for the “Rescuing Biomedical Research” initiative, which publicly launched its website today

There is an excellent write up of our recent paper on Alzforum by science writer Amber Dance, including interviews with the authors and others in the field.

Congratulations to Avinash Patel and Hyun Kate Lee on our latest publication in Cell, linking liquid-to-solid phase transition in cells to neurodegenerative disease. Check out the paper and video abstract!

Suppression of Ostwald ripening in active emulsions, plus methods for in vitro PCM assembly

During the Show ‘n’ Tell session at “MPI-CBG Day” last week, the Hyman lab put on interactive and edible demonstrations for our visitors.

Jeff, Avinash, and Carsten were on a team full of MPI members that valiantly climbed high walls, swam through icy mud baths, fought their way through a field of electric wires, and more.

We surprised Tony with cake and presents today, including a very special "phase transition lamp."

This work describes a novel in vitro system for studying regulated assembly of the pericentriolar matrix (PCM).

Annett has been a fantastic asset to our transgeneomics and phase transition teams, and she will be greatly missed.

Last Friday, our graduate student Oliver (Olli) Wüseke valiantly and successfully defended his thesis and officially became Dr. Wüseke!

Begasse et al, Temperature Dependence of Cell Division Timing Accounts for a Shift in the Thermal Limits of C. elegans and C. briggsae, is featured in this month’s Cell podcast!

It’s tubulin prep time in the Hyman Lab! We’re teamed up with the Reber Lab, visiting from Berlin, for this labor-intensive process.

The latest addition to our "Two Minute Talk" series is also our very first video abstract for a Hyman Lab publication (Begasse et al, 2015).

We said goodbye to beloved Hyman lab postdoc Yusuke Toyoda last week, as he left Dresden to return to his new job as a Research Associate at the Institute of Life Science at Kurume University in Japan.

Two lab members got a chance to check out the Lens on Life exhibit in London this weekend, the artistic output of the MitoSys consortium.

We ate our weight in cake to celebrate the publication of Maria and Mark’s paper, and to celebrate Jeff’s birthday. Maria baked 3 cakes, Olli baked one — and all 4 were delicious.

We’re so proud of Hyman Lab alumnus Simone Reber, who gave a fantastic lecture yesterday at her Inaugural Symposium as a new group leader at the Integrative Research Institute (IRI) for the Life Sciences in Berlin.

In the latest addition to our "Science Sketches" series, postdoc Mark Leaver explains how he studies the adaptation of nematodes to habitats of different temperatures.

Congratulations to Maria on her paper, which illuminates how the temperature tolerance of cell division allows organisms to adapt to be viable at a higher temperature range

Two new publications came out last month as a result of collaborations between Hyman lab members and other labs.

Last night there was a huge event in the Dresden city center, “Open-minded and colorful — Dresden for all.” Over 22,000 people attended this concert and rally to show their support for tolerance, empathy, and open-mindedness in our city.

Today, Tony gave a lecture on “Liquid-like compartments in cells: Implications for polarity and disease” at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) in Kobe, Japan.

Wishing you and yours a wonderful 2015. Enjoy this artwork created by lab member Oliver Wueseke, titled "Ying Yang Worms."

Avinash and Shamba are hard at work in the lab this Christmas break, so a secret Santa made them a special advent calendar to carry them through the Christmas and New Year’s.

Tony was interviewed by the radio program MDR Figaro about his Christmas traditions and memories.

Last Friday, Dec 12 was the annual MPI-CBG Christmas party, and this year the theme was “CBG: Chic, Beautiful, Glamorous.” The dress code was black tie, and it was great to see so many people decked out in their finest, including Tony in his tux!

He will be speaking at 6:05pm in Minisymposium 16: Microtubule Assemblies and their Functions, giving a talk entitled, "Regulated assembly of a supramolecular centrosome scaffold in vitro."

DESCRIPTION

This paper introduces a computational method which addresses the complex task of digitally aligning many serial electron tomography slices to create a complete, 3D image of spindles.

The Hyman lab sends its warm and happy congratulations to our former postdoc Alex Bird (now a Group Leader at the MPI for Molecular Physiology in Dortmund) on the arrival of his son, Nils.

On November 20, as part of the PhD Student Practical Course, a small group of predocs built a SPIM microscope (for Selective Plane Illumination Microscopy) in the lab of Jan Huisken.

The Academy consists of ~3000 leading European experts in science, technology, humanities, social sciences, economics, and law.

Congratulations to Dr. Dreßler as he starts his new job next week at Vetter Pharma-Fertigung GmbH & Co. KG in Ravensburg, Germany.

Here’s Oliver Wueseke, Julia Mahamid, Tony Hyman, Jeff Woodruff, Beatriz Ferreira Gomes, and Ben Engel in Lisbon for the EMBO Conference on Centrosomes.

The MaxSynBio research consortium aims to approach the field of Synthetic Biology from a fundamental perspective of basic research, taking a bottom-up approach towards understanding biology.

Tony has potential PhD students arm wrestle him for a spot in the lab!

Find out why Tony took the documentary crew to Die Gläsernen Manufaktur last year, see Lucy throughout the process of creating the incredible handblown glass Cells, watch the dialogue develop between all of the artist/scientist pairs, and witness the final products of each collaboration.

Hyman lab postdoc Avinash Patel contributed an article about his experience at the MPI-CBG to a top daily magazine in India, India Today.

Last year, Tony was paired with artists Lucy + Jorge Orta for an ongoing dialogue about science, art, and cell division as part of the MitoSys Project.

It’s official: our beloved postdoc and frog-wrangler extraordinaire Simone Reber has left us for Berlin, and she’s taking the frogs with her!

Tony, Jeff, Oliver, and Beatriz are all on their way to the EMBO Centrosomes and Spindle Pole Bodies Conference in Lisbon, Portugal. Jeff will be giving a talk and Olli & Tony will both be presenting posters.

Fall 2014 has brought an influx of smart and fun new people to the Hyman lab, and we’re excited to have five new members join us.

Today, Tony is giving a talk at a symposium in Cologne in honor of Maria Leptin’s 60th birthday. Nobel prize winner Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard is also a featured speaker.

The entire Hyman Lab took a trip to the beautiful city of Meißen this week for our annual retreat. Tony shared his current and future vision for the lab with us, and we had a great afternoon exploring Meißen and biking along the Elbe River back to Dresden.

Tony spoke as part of a summer seminar series hosted by MPI-CBG postdocs during which group leaders gave thoughtful and personal advice about how to start your own group.

The BiOlympics, a huge multi-institute event with over 160 participants, took place this past weekend, Sept 12-13. The Hyman Lab and the Grill Lab combined forces to create team “Wormstorm”!

Hyman lab postdoc Elisabeth Fischer-Friedrich –you may remember her Two Minute Talk on Cell Rounding! — has just published a paper on the work she discussed in her video.

Today Tony gave a talk on "Liquid like compartments in cells: Implications for polarity and disease" at the VBC Seminar Series at the Vienna Biocenter.

All of us here in the Hyman lab wish a warm farewell and the best of luck to two of our long time staff members, Ina Poser and Mai Thuong Pham, as they each move on to the next steps in their careers.

The mission of the Center is "to study integrated biological systems and processes using computational and theoretical approaches in close collaboration with experimentalists."

This work, led by graduate student Oliver Wueseke and just published in Molecular Biology of the Cell, shows that these PCM components interact only in the context of PCM assembly, and not in the cytoplasm.

Our story on Parkinson’s and the glycolytic pathway has been picked up by several newspapers, radio and TV stations in Germany. It’s safe to say the word is out!

This work links the metabolic products of the glyoxalase DJ-1 with mitochondrial health during cellular stress.

Did you miss 2 im Boot? Now’s your chance to see what it was like! Check out this 4-minute video for a glimpse into the fun evening on a historic steamboat with Tony and Prof. Holger Brandes.

In the latest addition to our "Two Minute Talk" series, postdoc Elisabeth Fischer-Friedrich explains the biophysics of why and how cells become round during mitosis.

Spot 25-year-old Tony in this lineup of predoc photos from the LMB, discovered when he was there for the Alumni Symposium earlier this month!

Lens on Life, a traveling art exhibition inspired by cell division, premiered this month at the Federica Schiavo Gallery in Rome, Italy. The exhibition is rooted in the MitoSys Project, an EU-funded research consortium composed of labs from eight different European countries

This volume features 18 articles reflecting “direct and indirect input of some 50 leading scientists in the field” of centrosome biology. Jeff Woodruff, Oliver Wueseke, and Tony contributed a review

This work proposes “a theoretical description of centrosomes as liquid droplets,” drawing on our knowledge of phase separation in the cytoplasm.

Our postdoc Avinash Patel has just been awarded a fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for his work on phase transitions of cellular processes.

It's that time of year again! The MPI will open its doors to the public tomorrow from 6pm to 1am for a long night of science and fun. It's Dresden's biggest science outreach event, with 29 different participating institutions and universities.

We were randomly sorted into over 30 teams of ~10 people each and sent out on a wild historical scavenger hunt all over the city, encountering a number of interesting characters along the way.

Tony wowed the crowd with his flute last night on the dampfschiff ‘Dresden’ at 2 im Boot. It was a great evening of science, games, and fun.

We all cheered extra loudly for Germany's World Cup win over Portugal because Simone's Frog Oracles predicted the score exactly: 4-0! Thanks to their astounding feat of prophesy, the frogs are now famous, landing themselves and Simone back in the Bild Zeitung.

Aiming to replace the late Octopus Oracle Paul, who correctly predicted all of Germany's games during the last world cup, labs at the MPI have made their own Model Oracles

We had so much fun taking over the @eLife twitter feed yesterday. If you missed it, you can catch back up in one fell swoop because eLife storified the day for us!

We're live! Tweeting from @elife for the #elifetakeover all day today. Welcome, @elife followers! Have a look around and see what we're up to here in Dresden. Thanks for stopping by!

The newest publication of the lab is out this month in PLoS Computational Biology! Michael Kuhn, first author, is a joint postdoc of the Hyman lab and the Beyer Lab at the BIOTEC.

With 2 im Boot (which translates to "Two in the Boat"), science comes out of the ivory tower and onto a river steamboat! Join Tony and Prof. Holger Brandes on June 25 for a fun and enlightening evening on the Elbe.

…the eLife Twitter feed, that is. Follow #eLifetakeover next week as 4 different labs take over the account, @eLife. The Hyman lab takeover will be on Wednesday, June 11th!

Tony has been elected to a three-year term on the council for the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB). As a council member, Tony will work to encourage more interchange between the European and American systems, fostering innovation by promoting an easy exchange of information between the two scientific communities.

The MPI-CBG is proud to be part of DRESDEN-concept, a collection of cultural and research institutions in the city. DRESDEN-concept’s mission “is aimed at the development and use of synergies in research, education, infrastructure, and administration.

Congratulations to the Hyman lab's newest PhD: Martin Dreßler! On March 24, Martin defended his dissertation, titled: "Dynamics of pericentriolar material during the first cell division in Caenorhabditis elegans embryos."

Tony almost had the votes! But he definitely had the best fan club. At last night's mock election for EU President at the Herkuleskeule, Tony was only one vote short of victory.

Tony was near London yesterday for the final meeting, discussion, and film shooting for the Meeting of the Minds project. All 10 artists and scientists convened for dinner, discourse, and a creative exchange of ideas. The menu for their dinner certainly kept with the themes of the evening.

At the MPI-CBG beer hour last Friday, there was an epic bike relay race to celebrate the 4 new institute bicycles. Our Hyman lab team, the Phase Separatists, had a very enthusiastic showing!

After seeing our “Happy MPI” video, the Bild Zeitung asks, “Is the Max Planck Institute Dresden’s Coolest Company?” Obviously we think so!

Here at the MPI-CBG, we're all pretty happy people ... and videos like this give you a glimpse of why we're all so happy to be working at this special place!

We’re so excited about this first glimpse of Meeting of Minds, a documentary about the MitoSys Project! The film explores the subject of mitosis through conversations between scientists and artists, bringing new, creative perspectives to the topic.

Read Tony's perspective piece in the latest issue of Molecular Biology of the Cell about encouraging innovation in American scientific research by altering the funding system.

Find out more about the research groups at various Dresden institutes with a focus on and expertise in biophysics, find lectures and seminars where you can learn more about biophysics, see a list of upcoming biophysics conferences, and more.

New articles on our website about Phase Separation and TransgeneOmics

As an old friend and former postdoc of Tim Mitchison, Tony was the perfect person to give the introduction when Tim was invited to give the Keith Porter Lecture at the December 2013 ASCB meeting in New Orleans.

Members of the Hyman lab (Ina, Andrei, and Tony) are contributing authors on the latest paper from Jay Gopalakrishnan’s group, “Conserved TCP domain of Sas-4/CPAP is essential for pericentriolar material tethering during centrosome biogenesis."

Hyman lab postdoc Simone Reber has written an excellent review and perspective titled “On Spindle Length and Shape” for Cell News. Meanwhile, a fun article about artist Felix Scholz and his collaborations with the Hyman lab was published in Zeiss im Bild (ZiB) International.

Wishing you all the best for 2014 with artwork by our very own Julia Eichhorn.

From December 14-18, cell biologists from around the world will converge on New Orleans to meet and share their latest research and ideas.  Tony will be there chairing a session, and our postdoc Kate Lee is presenting a poster.

An interesting and provocative article by Nobel laureate Randy Schekman was published in The Guardian yesterday. Randy detailed some of the problems created by the pressure to publish in “luxury”, high-profile, subscription-based journals.

Tony will be giving a talk at the upcoming Physics of Biology Conference in Geneva.  If you'll be at the meeting, you can catch Tony's talk at 12:30 on Wednesday, November 27!

During asymmetric cell division, cytoplasmic components are segregated to opposite sides of the cell. We discuss how the observed segregation can be achieved by a position-dependent phase separation mechanism controlled by a protein concentration gradient. We show that effects of even a weak gradient can be amplified by the phase transition to achieve strong segregation. We compare our theory to the segregation of germ granules observed during the divisions in the C. elegans embryo. Our study demonstrates how liquid-liquid phase separation can play a key role in the organization of the cytoplasm.

The 5th EMBO Meeting is being held in Amsterdam from September 21-24 -- just over a week from now.  Will you be there?  If so, don't miss the talks and posters from members of the Hyman lab!

An outbreak of Cricket Fever has hit the Hyman Lab! It all started with a successful weekend lesson & BBQ hosted by Mark, Shamba, and Avinash. Now you can find lab members bowling, batting, and running between the wickets after work, right in front of the MPI.

Art is in the air at the MPI-CBG.  Artist-in-residence Nina Doege, has installed her newest piece in the building's atrium and main stairwell. It grabs your attention and pulls you in as you descend the stairs...

Work in our lab has elucidated the detailed function of XMAP215, a processive microtubule polymerase.

Looking for something to do with your weekend Chances are there's a festival happening somewhere in Dresden. This weekend there were (at least) two!

This innovative conference will bring together scientists from many different disciplines to explore big ideas and stimulate creative discussions about the way science will shape our future.

Some of the Hyman lab joined other members of the MPI for a fun, messy, colourful Saturday at the Dresden Holi Festival of Colours

The weather in Dresden is gorgeous right now, and Trabi has been itching to go out for a spin.

Dresdeners of all ages had the chance to: see pipetting robots in action; learn how to extract the DNA of a banana in their own kitchens; see the wide variety of organisms living in our little pond, from water scorpions to toads the size of a fingernail; watch a play in which the fruit flies become the scientists; and much more!

The MPI-CBG will join over 40 other research institutions and universities in opening its doors to the public for a night of science fun.

The Trabi had quite an exciting day today at the transparent Volkswagon factory in Dresden.

Despite massive rains and rising waters along the Elbe River in Dresden, the MPI-CBG remains safe, especially thanks to the hard work of the many members of the institute who pitched in to fill sandbags that are now ready to protect our basement.

Hyman Lab postdoc Shambaditya Saha has just been awarded an EMBO Long-Term Fellowship

HFSP aims to promote intercontinental collaboration and training in cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research focused on the life sciences.

Using just two components, XMAP215 and EB1, we can achieve fast microtubule growth rates that are comparable to those observed in cells.

Science and theatre are coming together to celebrate life, its diversity, its mystery, and more.

There is no doubt that the balancing act of raising a family and succeeding in your career can be difficult, but the flexibility at the MPI-CBG institute facilitates a friendly environment where employees can succeed in both areas.

A genomic toolkit to investigate kinesin and myosin motor function in cells

Tony emphasizes moving towards a system for funding starting researchers funds based on excellence and innovations, rather than preliminary data.

This year, 18 Hyman Lab members made the journey to San Fransciso! The annual ASCB meeting was a success and as Program Chair, Tony was honored to give the introduction speech.

Tony gives an inside interview about Dresden, the secret behind German success, and reveals the skills necessary for overall success.