Botany

We'd like to congratulate grad student Freyja Moser (Muir Lab) who was awarded an NSF GRFP!
Way to go, Freyja!

Congrats to Professor Shan He, whose final postdoctoral project at Princeton was published in Nature Cell Biology last month!
From Dr He: "Biomolecular condensates are non-membrane-bound organelles formed through liquid-liquid phase separation. Despite their importance for biological functions, the mechanisms by which condensate size is actively controlled remain unclear. Using the pyrenoid, a condensate that enhances photosynthetic CO2 fixation in eukaryotic algae, as a model system, we identified a kinase-based mechanism that actively regulates condensate size. Our work establishes a strong foundation for further studies of condensate regulation across a wide range of biological systems."
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41556-026-01908-w

A summary of the work can be found at https://molbio.princeton.edu/news/2026/key1-unlocks-pyrenoid

KEY1 unlocks the pyrenoid “The regulation of condensate assembly and disassembly is a major outstanding question in the field, and this paper is a beautiful elucidation of how that works for the pyrenoid,” says Clifford Brangwynne. Pictured are first authors Shan He and Linnea Lemma.