Conference: Re-imagining a cellular space occupied by condensates

凝析物的出现是一种理解细胞组织方式的新方法。这种新颖的理解表明，细胞被大量的液滴所占据，每个液滴由少量的成员蛋白组成，这些成员蛋白优先相互作用。然而，现有的凝析油的可视化表示无法传达关于凝析油如何形成和维持的不断增长的知识体系，并且只将注意力集中在凝析油潜在影响的一个子集上。因此，我们提出了一个研讨会，它将促进一个社区参与构建一种视觉语言和新的工具，以准确地捕捉凝析油的复杂性。研讨会将汇集来自不同学科的专家，重新构想细胞空间：大约三分之一的参与者将是积极从事凝聚态研究的生物学家，三分之一将是可视化和计算专家，包括建模专家，数据可视化专家和分子动画师，三分之一将来自通常不参与细胞生物学但长期以来一直在思考空间和表达方式的领域，如建筑，设计，城市规划和认知科学。我们将探讨具体的方法来沟通概念和直觉关于细胞空间的同事和学生。在会议上创建的表述将产生可实验验证的假设，并允许开发用于科学交流和教学的新工具。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Condensates have emerged as a provocative new way to understand how cells are organized. This novel understanding suggests that the cell is occupied by numerous droplets, each comprised of a small number of member proteins that preferentially interact with each other. However, the available visual representations of condensates fail to communicate the growing body of knowledge about how condensates form and are maintained, and also focuses attention on only a subset of the potential implications of condensates. We therefore propose a workshop that will foster a community engaged with constructing a visual language and new tools to accurately capture the complexity of condensates. The workshop will bring together experts from diverse disciplines to re-imagine cellular space: about one-third of the participants will be biologists actively engaged in condensate research, one-third will be visualization and computation specialists, including modeling experts, data visualization specialists and molecular animators, and one-third will come from fields that do not normally engage with cell biology but that have long been thinking about space and ways to represent it, such as architecture, design, urbanism, and cognitive science. We will explore specific approaches to communicate concepts and intuitions about cellular space to colleagues and students. The representations created in the conference will generate experimentally-testable hypotheses and allow for the development of new tools for scientific communication and teaching.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.