Structure of biomolecular condensates

Biomolecular condensates are important organizers of cellular biochemistry. Understanding their structure and function can, for example, shed light on several neurodegenerative diseases. Although biomolecular condensates play such an important role, we barely understand their internal structure. So far, it is known that structures below the optical resolution limit are proposed to exist. These scales are accessible with X-rays, which are well suited to quantifying the organization of molecules through the structure factor. Here, we propose experiments at the BioSAXS BM29 beamline at the ESRF to further unravel the structure of biomolecular condensates. We hope that these experiments not only shed light on our own system, but also again demonstrate the power of X-rays to a growing community of condensate scientists.