The Pre-GRC Systems Chemistry Symposium brings together leading researchers working at the interface of systems chemistry, supramolecular materials, biomolecular condensates, non-equilibrium self-assembly, and life-like chemical systems. The symposium highlights how chemical systems can be programmed to exhibit emergent behaviors such as self-organization, compartmentalization, pattern formation, metabolism-like activity, and adaptive function. Through a series of talks spanning molecular design to complex reaction networks, the event explores fundamental questions surrounding the origins of biological organization and the development of next-generation adaptive materials.
Register HERE! Space is limited.
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Dr. Allie Obermeyer, Associate Professor, Chemical Engineering, Columbia University
Title: Metabolic activity to animate coacervate materials
Abstract: Protein de-mixing is essential to the organization of cellular components. These phase separated membraneless organelles, termed biomolecular condensates, create distinct environments that are essential to cellular processes ranging from signaling to gene expression and stress response. Equilibrium theories reasonably describe the formation of and biomolecule partitioning in these biomolecular condensates, but cellular activities regularly create unstable nonequilibrium compositions. Here I share our efforts to understand how model biomolecular condensates respond when forced out of equilibrium. We create model condensates via the complex coacervation of an enzyme and a polyion. The phase behavior of the resulting liquid-like drops is coupled to their catalytic activity via the local pH. Reaction with chemical “fuel” lowers the pH, creating unstable nonequilibrium conditions, ultimately triggering the formation of internal vacuoles and size dependent droplet dissolution. These responses depend on the rate of reaction-induced pH changes relative to relaxation mechanisms inside the drops. Slow changes are controlled by equilibrium thermodynamics; faster pH changes couple to macromolecule transport on the drop scale. Finally, we demonstrate that these findings translate to more biologically relevant condensates.
Bio: Allie Obermeyer is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at Columbia University. The Obermeyer Group harnesses the biological and polymeric properties of proteins to create new materials. These studies blend approaches from chemical and synthetic biology, protein engineering, and polymer physics. Allie obtained her undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Rice University and performed undergraduate research in the laboratory of Seiichi P.T. Matsuda. She then joined the Department of Chemistry at UC Berkeley and earned a PhD degree under the guidance of Matthew Francis as a part of the Chemical Biology Graduate Program. She subsequently conducted postdoctoral training in the Chemical Engineering department at MIT as an Arnold Beckman postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Bradley Olsen. In 2017, she started her independent career at Columbia University. She has been the recipient of an NSF CAREER and NIH MIRA award as well as a Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award and a Teaching Award from the Columbia Engineering Alumni Association.
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Dr. Dibyendu Das, Professor, Department of Chemical Sciences of IISER Kolkata
Title: When Matter Comes Alive: Life-Like Properties Emerging from Simple Chemical Systems
Abstract: Life’s soft and wet machinery arose from spatially confined assemblies of biomolecules capable of replication, integrated with metabolic reaction cycles that function far from equilibrium.[1] By methodically synthesizing and integrating these key elements, i.e. replication, metabolism, and confinement under non-equilibrium conditions, we can begin to explore how chemically constructed systems might acquire life-like, evolving properties.[2-5] This ambitious goal lies at the heart of systems chemistry. In this talk, I will outline recent insights into how reaction networks, self-reproduction, and compartmentalization can be brought together under non-equilibrium settings.
[1] I will also delve into the interplay between reaction dynamics and transient compartmentalization, and explore the development of self-replicating systems capable of sustained operation in far-from-equilibrium conditions.[1]
Bio: Dibyendu Das is Professor at the Department of Chemical Sciences of IISER Kolkata, West Bengal, India. He obtained his PhD at Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS), India and postdoctoral training from Emory University, USA. His research group is interested in emerging field of systems chemistry, chemical evolution and peptide nanotechnology.
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Dr. Chris DelRe, Assistant Professor, Nanoscience Initiative
Talk Title: Tunable and scalable solvent-free protein liquids
Abstract: Proteins offer great promise to serve as the building blocks for nanomaterials due to their unprecedented combination of biocompatibility, sustainability, and functionality. However, both aqueous and organic solvents pose fundamental challenges to protein stability, solubility, and function that prevent protein-based nanotechnologies from being fabricated or scaled up. Here we present a new approach to create ultra-concentrated (> 400 mg/mL) protein fluids that alleviate the limitations associated with traditional solvents. These new biofluids are manufactured in a scalable way; have bulk properties that are highly tunable; and can function in the liquid state or be processed into versatile solid-state materials. Considering their ease of production and vast potential design space, these new biofluids are poised to drive fundamental advances in scalable protein-based technologies and medications.
Bio: Chris received his BS/MS degree in materials science and engineering from Drexel University (2010 – 2015). He then received a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from the University of California, Berkeley (2015 – 2020). During his Ph.D., Chris focused on stabilizing enzymes and using enzymes as building blocks to design protein-based materials. His major research contributions involve manipulating the interactions between embedded enzymes and their host polymers, leading to single-use plastics that can be depolymerized on-demand at the material’s end-of-life into recyclable and metabolizable by-products. After completing his Ph.D., Chris started a postdoctoral fellowship in chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard University (2021 – 2023), where he interfaced proteins with porous nanocrystals to control their self-assembly, stability, and pore accessibility in water. The DelRe lab at ASRC and CUNY currently focused on engineering new materials based on confined proteins and synthetic polymers.
Dr. Charalampos Babis Pappas, Group Leader, University of Freiburg
Talk Title: Why Nature Chose Acyl Phosphates? From Biology to Systems Chemistry
Abstract: Acyl phosphates occupy a unique position at the interface of energy transduction, molecular activation, and chemical organization in biology.1 As high-energy intermediates, they participate in central biochemical processes ranging from metabolic regulation to peptide bond formation and phosphoryl transfer. Despite their reactivity, acyl phosphates operate efficiently under aqueous conditions, enabling selective chemical transformations central to life. These characteristics suggest that acyl phosphates may have played a broader role in the emergence of primitive chemical systems prior to the evolution of complex enzymatic machinery. Herein, we explore how aminoacyl phosphate esters can be repurposed as programmable activation motifs in systems chemistry. By tailoring the structure of the phosphate ester and the amino acid side chain, we show how acyl transfer reactions shape supramolecular organization and pathway-selective oligomerization.2,3 The interplay between activation and supramolecular organization enables control over esterification, thioester formation, peptide coupling, and assembly processes in water. Our studies reveal that subtle molecular variations influence both reactivity and material state, allowing activation pathways to encode distinct supramolecular and covalent outcomes.4,5 These findings establish a conceptual bridge between biological phosphoryl chemistry and adaptive reaction networks, highlighting acyl phosphates as versatile molecular motifs for constructing dynamic chemical systems. More broadly, this work suggests that nature may have selected acyl phosphates not only because of their balance between stability and reactivity, but also because they couple chemical activation with molecular organization within complex reaction networks.
References
- Westheimer, Science 1987, 235, 1173-1178
- Dai, M. D. Pol, L. Saile, A. Sharma, B. Liu, R. Thomann, J. L. Trefs, D. Qiu, S. Moser, S. Wiesler, B. N. Balzer, T. Hugel, H. J. Jessen, C. G. Pappas, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2023, 145, 26086-26094
- Sharma, K. Dai, M. D. Pol, A. Papadopoulou, T. Pramod, R. Thomann, Y. Thomann, C. G. Pappas, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2026, 48, 8200-8212
- Dai, L. Saile, M. D. Pol, A. Sharma, T. Pramod, C. G. Pappas, Chem. 2025, 11, 102589
- Saile, K. Dai, M. D. Pol, T. Pramod, R. Thomann, C. G. Pappas, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2025, 64, e202508481
Bio: Charalampos (Babis) Pappas received his M.Sc. degree in 2012 from the University of Ioannina, where he worked on the cis/trans isomerization of proline in model peptides. In 2016, he obtained his Ph.D. degree entitled “Supramolecular Systems Chemistry using Peptides” from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, working in the group of Prof. Rein Ulijn. Following a short six-month postdoctoral stay at the Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC) at the City University of New York in the group of Prof. Rein Ulijn, he was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship in 2017 and moved to the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, where he worked with Prof. Sijbren Otto on dynamic folded macromolecules. In October 2020, Babis joined the Cluster of Excellence Living, Adaptive and Energy-autonomous Materials Systems (livMatS) at the University of Freiburg as a junior group leader.
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Dr. Ryou Kubota, Group Leader, Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyushu University
Talk Title: Nonequilibrium Supramolecular Dynamics Drives Hierarchical Hydrogel Patterning
Abstract: Spatial patterning is abundant in living systems. In biological morphogenesis, hierarchical and complex spatial patterns emerge from the orchestrated differentiation and apoptosis of cells. This sophisticated process is known to be governed by reaction-diffusion systems, where gradients of signaling molecules, morphogens, dictate positional information across scales. In contrast, most synthetic supramolecular assemblies are formed under thermodynamic control, resulting in static structures that lack autonomous spatial complexity.
Building on our recent discovery of supramolecular dynamic instability1, the autonomous repetition of growth and shrinkage in peptide fibers triggered by anionic surfactants, we have moved toward a more advanced framework: supramolecular morphogenesis2. In this study, we demonstrate the spatial control over the differentiation and decomposition of synthetic self-assembled fibers by coupling non-equilibrium dynamics with molecular diffusion. Upon hybridization of peptide-based supramolecular fibers with cationic surfactants (as synthetic morphogens), the system undergoes a unique “break-and-build” cycle: the progenitor fibers decompose, followed by the formation of differentiated co-assembled fibers. By allowing these morphogens to diffuse into a hydrogel matrix, we successfully generated repeated propagating waves that produced macroscopic, non-linear concentric patterns of chemically and morphologically distinct fibers.
Publications
(1) Torigoe, S.; Nagao, K.; Kubota, R.; Hamachi, I. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2024, 146 (9), 5799–5805.
(2) Kubota, R.; Ikuta, Y.; Torigoe, S.; Hamachi, I. ChemRxiv, 2025. https://doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv-2025-73bg1.
Bio: Ryou Kubota received his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo in 2013 under the supervision of Prof. Mitsuhiko Shionoya. After working at Kyoto University as a postdoctoral fellow, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor in 2015 and a Junior Associate Professor in 2021 in Prof. Itaru Hamachi’s laboratory. In 2025, he joined Kyushu University as a Full Professor. His current research interests include supramolecular chemistry, soft materials, and chemical biology.
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Dr. Ankit Jain, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Brooklyn College
Talk Title: Amyloidal control of multiphasic condensates
Abstract: Spatial and temporal order are foundational for biological systems to maintain cellular homeostasis and execute complex physiological functions. Intracellular compartmentalization is critical to this regulation and is increasingly understood to rely on membraneless organelles formed via liquid-liquid phase separation. These biomolecular condensates coordinate distinct biochemical pathways within shared microenvironments. The nucleolus serves as a definitive model of this spatial organization. Within the nucleolus, the highly regulated, discrete assembly of specific proteins and nucleic acids sustains a nested, multilayered, multiphasic architecture. This coexistence of immiscible liquid phases is essential for segregating the sequential steps of ribosome biogenesis, demonstrating how controlled structural hierarchy directly dictates biological activity. Replicating these complex macromolecular morphologies through synthetic approaches offers a dual advantage for engineering and cell biology.
Taking inspiration from the nucleolus, in the current work, we show that amyloidal motifs can be modulated to form discreet beta sheet assemblies resulting in controlled stabilization of the internal compartments in a multiphasic system (Figure 1). The study further elucidates the aggregation parameters, to control the size distribution and dynamic ripening behavior of the internal compartments. We also detail the kinetic behavior to study its effect on the phase separation, elaborating mechanistic insights. Finally, we demonstrate how these ordered domains can host reaction centers. Developing systematic, bottom-up strategies to generate multiphasic assemblies provides a deeper mechanistic understanding of the thermodynamic and kinetic rules governing discrete biomolecular organization. Concurrently, such synthetic frameworks will help establish predictable design principles for engineering novel biomaterials.
Bio: Ankit obtained his B. Tech degree in Biotechnology from SASTRA University, India. In 2011, he joined Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), India as a Ph.D. student with Prof. Subi J. George. His research work focused on dynamic charge transfer aggregates and temporal control of their self-assembly using aspects of systems chemistry. His work showed that reaction networks can be used to control the size, growth, and decay of supramolecular systems. Following this in 2017 he joined Prof. Rein Ulijn’s lab at Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC) as a Simons postdoctoral fellow. One of the main focuses of his work was to develop disordered condensates that can stabilize localized ordered domains. He showed that with appropriate functionalization amyloidal domains can be restricted inside liquid droplets and can result in materials with higher partition coefficients for hydrophobic molecules.
In 2023 Ankit joined the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Brooklyn College as an Assistant Professor. In his lab, he envisages using his systems chemistry expertise in conjunction with hybrid condensates to develop novel materials that have significant applications in wide-ranging areas like biomedicine, energy and proto-cellular chemistry.