Professor Seth Childers' research focuses on developing synthetic biology tools to study bacterial signaling and biomolecular compartmentalization. His research explores how bacteria organize genetic regulation through phase separation, particularly investigating membraneless organelles. His lab designs biosensors and engineering strategies to understand bacterial protein functions, which are applied to address health issues such as gut-brain axis dysregulation. The group also develops biocontainment strategies to prevent the escape of engineered microbes and explore using synthetic materials for therapeutic purposes.
"BR-bodies facilitate adaptive responses and survival during copper stress in Caulobacter crescentus"
Passos C, Tomares DT, Yassine H , Schnorr WE, Hunter H, Wolfe-Feichter HK, Velier J, Dzurik KG, Grillo J, Gega A, Saxena S, Schrader JM, Childers WS Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2025, 301, 10, 110648
"Biomolecular condensates as stress sensors and modulators of bacterial signaling"
Sasazawa M, Tomares DT, Childers WS, Saurabh S Plos Pathogens, 2024, 20, 8, e1012413
"Biomolecular Condensates: From Bacterial Compartments to Incubator Spaces of Emergent Chemical Systems in Matter-to-Life Transitions"
Schnorr WE, Childers WS ChemSysChem, 2024, 6, e202400011
"Uncovering supramolecular chirality codes for the design of tunable biomaterials"
Klawa SJ, Lee M, Riker KD, Jian T, Wang Q, Gao Y, Daly ML, Bhonge S, Childers WS, Omosun TO, Mehta AK, Lynn DG, Freeman R Nature Communications, 2024, 15, 1, 788
"The BR-body proteome contains a complex network of protein-protein and protein-RNA interactions"
Nandana V, Rathnayaka-Mudiyanselage IW, Muthunayake NS, Hatami A, Mousseau CB, Ortiz-Rodríguez LA, Vaishnav J, Collins M, Gega A, Mallikaarachchi KS, Yassine H, Ghosh A, Biteen JS, Zhu Y, Champion MM, Childers WS, Schrader JM Cell Rep. 2023, 42, 10, 113229