Conference: Re-imagining a cellular space occupied by condensates

凝聚体已经成为了解细胞是如何组织的一种具有挑衅性的新方法。这种新的理解表明，细胞被许多液滴占据，每个液滴由少量优先相互作用的成员蛋白组成。然而，可用的冷凝物的视觉表示未能传达有关冷凝物如何形成和维持的知识的增长，并且还将注意力集中在冷凝物的潜在影响的子集上。因此，我们提出了一个研讨会，将培养一个社区参与构建一个视觉语言和新的工具，以准确地捕捉冷凝的复杂性。该研讨会将汇集来自不同学科的专家，重新想象细胞空间：大约三分之一的与会者将是积极从事冷凝研究的生物学家，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，三分之一来自通常不涉及细胞生物学的领域，但这些领域长期以来一直在思考空间及其表现方式，如建筑，设计，城市化和认知科学。我们将探索具体的方法来传达有关细胞空间的概念和直觉的同事和学生。在会议中创建的表示将产生实验可检验的假设，并允许开发新的工具，为科学交流和教学。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准的支持。

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.