Professor Jeetain Mittal

Jeetain Mittal
Department of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering
Texas A&M University

From Disorder to (Dys)Function: Simulating the Multiscale Dynamics of Biomolecular Condensates

Biomolecular condensates, formed through the phase separation of proteins and nucleic acids, are emerging as essential organizers of cellular biochemistry. These dynamic, membraneless compartments influence processes such as transcription, chromatin organization, and stress response, while their misregulation is linked to neurodegeneration, cancer, and aging-related disorders. My group develops and applies physics-based molecular simulations, from fully atomistic to coarse-grained models, to reveal the sequence-dependent driving forces that govern condensate formation, structure, and dynamics. This talk will highlight recent advances, ongoing challenges, and opportunities in connecting molecular interactions to emergent material properties, with the ultimate goal of guiding strategies to modulate condensate behavior for therapeutic discovery.

Jeetain Mittal

Dr. Jeetain Mittal is currently a Professor of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry and holds the Kenneth R. Hall Professorship at Texas A&M University (TAMU). Prior to joining TAMU in 2021, he was a Professor of Chemical Engineering at Lehigh University, where he began as an assistant professor in 2009 after completing a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Laboratory of Chemical Physics at the National Institutes of Health. He earned his doctorate from the University of Texas, Austin, his master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, and his bachelor’s degree from Punjab Technical University, all in Chemical Engineering. He has received numerous awards, including the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship in Chemistry, the Allan P. Colburn Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Department of Energy Early CAREER Award, and the Impact Award in Computational Molecular Science and Engineering. For more information about his research group, please visit: https://jeetain.wixsite.com/mittal-lab.

Host: Professor Sapna Sarupria