From molecules to cellular structures: Jan Brugués conducts research at TU Dresden's Physics of Life Cluster of Excellence

Physics of molecules leads to biological functions
"How do the building blocks in our cells know how to build a certain structure?" asks Prof Jan Brugués. „Thanks to the enormous progress made in molecular biology in recent decades, we now have a list of all the building blocks of life. However, we still do not understand how they come together to build cells and tissues. In my opinion, this is one of the greatest challenges of modern biology. In my lab, we want to contribute to answering this question by investigating how the properties of molecules lead to new biological functions on a larger scale.“ The underlying question is how information is transmitted across different levels: from DNA üto molecules and subcellular structures to the body plan of an organism. In order to find answers, the research group must also develop new instruments and methods for measuring and analysing data. They then combine these measurements with cell biological and theoretical approaches. „Ultimately, our goal is to answer fundamental biological questions with the help of physics, but also to contribute to the discovery of new physics." Prof Brugués is convinced that Dresden, and the Cluster of Excellence PoL in particular, offers the perfect scientific environment to bring biology and physics together and to facilitate his research. 

New research synergies
Prof. Otger Campàs, Managing Director and spokesperson of PoL, also emphasises the interdisciplinary scientific community in Dresden as being particularly suitable for answering research questions that transcend the boundaries and specialist disciplines. „We want to uncover the physical principles of living systems from molecules to organisms. Prof Brugués perfectly complements the current research strengths at PoL. With his expertise in the discovery of physical principles that control subcellular structures, he bridges the gap between molecules and cells. His research will have strong synergistic effects with our long-standing work on the physics of multicellular systems, biomolecular condensates, synthetic biology and beyond," says Prof Campàs. 

&about Jan Brugués
Jan Brugués obtained his M.Sc. in Theoretical Physics in his hometown Barcelona in 2004. He completed his doctorate in Biological Physics at the University of Barcelona and the École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles in Paris until 2008. As a postdoctoral fellow of the Human Frontier Science Programme, he moved to Harvard University in Boston, USA, to learn more about experimental methods and biological systems. His own interdisciplinary research group followed in 2013 at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics and the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden. He became a member of the Center for Systems Biology Dresden in 2014. Among other awards, Jan Brugués also received the Career Development Award of the Human Frontier Science Programme in 2014 and an ERC Consolidator Grant in 2022. Since December 2022, he has held the W3 professorship for the organisation of subcellular structures in space and time at the Cluster of Excellence Physics of Life at TU Dresden. 

Üüber das Exzellenzcluster Physics of Life
Physics of Life (PoL) is one of three Clusters of Excellence at TU Dresden. It focuses on identifying the physical laws underlying the organisation of life in molecules, cells and tissues. In the cluster, scientists from the fields of physics, biology and computer science are researching how active matter in cells and tissues organises itself into predetermined structures and allows life to develop. PoL is funded by the DFG as part of the Excellence Strategy. It is a collaboration between scientists at TU Dresden and research institutions in the DRESDEN-concept network, such as the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG), the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (MPI-PKS), the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research (IPF) and the Helmholtz Centre Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR). www.physics-of-life.tu-dresden.de

Press release by "idw - Informationsdienst Wissenschaft" from 10 February 2023