Position
Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Role
Starting January, 2023

Email
jj6294@princeton.edu

Assistant
Jacqueline Armstrong

Office
A421 Engineering Quad

Degrees
PhD, Chemistry, University of Cambridge, 2018
MPhil, Chemistry, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, 2014
BSc, Chemistry and Mathematics, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, 2012


Bio/Description

Honors and Awards

Postdoctoral Award, Biophysical Society, IDP Subgroup, 2022
Rising Star in Soft and Biological Matter, University of Chicago, 2020
Junior Research Fellowship, King’s College, Cambridge, 2020
Bill Gates Sr Award, Gates Cambridge Trust, 2018
Gates Cambridge Scholarship, Gates Cambridge Trust, 2014
Cambridge International Scholarship, Cambridge Trust, 2014
General Postgraduate Scholarship, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, 2012
Valedictorian, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, 2012
R. L. Seale Chemistry Prize, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, 2012
Faculty of Arts and Science Scholarship, Government of Dominica, 2009

Research Interests

The goal of our research is to determine the principles governing intracellular compartmentalization and to employ these rules for bioengineering.?
We are particularly interested in the characterization of biomolecular condensates—compartments inside cells that lack physical membranes. These compartments are largely composed of proteins, RNA and other biomolecules and are thought to assemble via phase separation. Importantly, biomolecular condensates are linked to both healthy (e.g., RNA processing) and aberrant (e.g., neurodegenerative disorders) cellular functions. Thus, careful characterization of these compartments presents exciting opportunities for engineering new cellular functions, as well as for developing therapies to bypass condensate-linked disorders.??
A leading aim of our research is to determine the physicochemical factors that dictate the fate of biomolecular condensates and to engineer strategies for regulating their properties.?
To this end, we design computer simulations and develop theoretical approaches that enable us to interrogate biomolecular condensates across a variety of spatiotemporal scales. Specifically, we integrate molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo-based techniques, as well as implement and design atomistic, coarse-grained, and minimal model representations of biomolecules. Using these tools, we investigate the factors that govern the formation, dissolution, and misregulation of biomolecular condensates. We then exploit the mechanistic insight to rationally design condensates with novel functions.
Our research lies at the intersection of biology, chemistry, physics, computer science and engineering and is therefore highly collaborative. Ultimately, we aim to expand the fundamental understanding of self-assembly in living systems and make impactful contributions to bioengineering applications.

Selected Publications
Joseph JA*, Reinhardt A*, Aguirre A, Chew PY, Russell KO, Espinosa JR, Garaizar A, and Collepardo?Guevara R. Physics?driven coarse?grained model for biomolecular phase separation with near-quantitative accuracy. Nature Computational Science, 1, 732–743 (2021).
?Krainer G*, Welsh TJ*, Joseph JA*, Espinosa JR, Wittmann S, de Csilléry E, Sridhar A, Toprakcioglu Z, Gudi?kyt? G, Czekalska MA, Arter WE, Guillén?Boixet J, Franzmann TM, Seema Q, St George?Hyslop P, Hyman AA, Collepardo?Guevara R, Alberti S, and Knowles TPJ. Reentrant liquid condensate phase of proteins is stabilized by hydrophobic and non?ionic interactions. Nature Communications, 12, 1085 (2021).
Joseph JA*, Espinosa JR*, Sanchez?Burgos I, Garaizar A, Frenkel D, and Collepardo?Guevara R. Thermodynamics and kinetics of phase separation of protein–RNA mixtures by a minimal model. Biophysical Journal, 120, 1219–1230 (2021).
Espinosa JR, Joseph JA, Sanchez?Burgos I, Garaizar A, Frenkel D, and Collepardo?Guevara R. Liquid network connectivity regulates the stability and composition of biomolecular condensates with many components. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117, 13238–13247 (2020).
Joseph JA, R?der K, Chakraborty D, Mantell RG, and Wales DJ. Exploring biomolecular energy landscapes. Chemical Communications, 53, 6974–6988 (2017).

Research Areas
Biomolecular Engineering
Cellular and Tissue Engineering
Theory and Computation