Benjamin Schuster enjoys solving biomedical mysteries. An assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering in the Rutgers University–New Brunswick School of Engineering, Schuster is enmeshed in exploring a host of frontier fields – from synthetic biology, which involves redesigning organisms for useful purposes, to “soft matter,” squishy materials from paint to polymers that are easily affected by external forces.
Schuster presently is knee-deep in efforts to understand the rules governing the creation of mysterious liquid protein droplets found deep within cells, alternatively known as biomolecular condensates or membrane-less organelles. In a Nature Chemistry paper he wrote with his doctoral student, Mayur Barai, and colleagues from Texas A&M University and the University of Delaware, Schuster described experiments revealing new insights into the behavior of proteins that produce the droplets. To read the full story.