Sophie Weyrauch

PhD student / Doktorandin

Institute of Physical Chemistry
Albertstraße 21
79104 Freiburg

Phone: +49 761 203-6228
Room: 01.002 1.OG Flachbau

Email: sophie.weyrauch@physchem.uni-freiburg.de

About me:

since 2022: PhD student at the Institute of Physical Chemistry in the Hugel lab

2019 - 2022: Master of Science in Biology (Microbial and Plant Biotechnology) at the Technical University Kaiserslautern

2021 - 2022: External Internship and Master Thesis at the University of Graz, Austria in the Department of Membrane Biophysics

2020: Research Internship at the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, Czech Republic

2015 - 2019: Bachelor of Science in Biosciences at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern

Research interest:

We aim to gain insights in signalling processes involved in formation of biomoleduclar condensates (i.e. condensed regions with higher concentration levels as the surrounding environment) in real-time in living cells. Therfore, we use mammalian cells and image them in a custom-built HILO (highly inclined and laminated optical sheet) fluorescence microscope. This is of interest, since several diseases, like cancer are mediated by the formation of biomolecular condensates. Furtehrmore, they involve in stress responses, transcriptional regulation and other highly important regulatory processes in the cell.

We want to capture the pre-condensate state and therefore use low expression conditions with low laser power and in our microscope to investigate the formation of those 'clusters'. Furthermore, we want to shed light on the factors that drive signalling in condensate formation.

Publications:

C. Lan, J. Kim, S. Ulferts, F. Aprile-Garcia, S. Weyrauch, A. Anandamurugan, R. Grosse, R. Sawarkar, A. Reinhardt & T. Hugel

Quantitative real-time in-cell imaging reveals heterogeneous clusters of proteins prior to condensation
Nat. Commun., 14, 4831 (2023). 10.1038/s41467-023-40540-2

T. Bhuiyan, N. Arecco, P. K. Mendoza Sanchez, J. Kim, C. Schwan, S. Weyrauch, S. Nizamuddin, A. Prunotto. M. Tekman, M. Biniossek, B. Knapp, S. Koidl, F. Drepper, P. F. Huesgen, R. Grosse, T. Hugel, S. J. Arnold

TAF2 condensation in nuclear speckles links basal transcription factor TFIID to RNA splicing factors Cell reports 44.5 (2025) 10.1016/j.celrep.2025.115616