About

Eric Dufresne is a professor in the Department of Physics at Cornell University, with an educational background that includes a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 2000 and a B.S. from Yale University in 1996. His research focuses on biological physics, particularly on understanding living systems through novel quantitative approaches and designing synthetic systems that replicate biological phenomena. His work is inspired by biological systems that suggest new routes to sustainable materials and push the limits of the physics of soft materials. Dufresne's research investigates hierarchical and adaptive structures in living organisms, exploring how materials are organized at various scales, and aims to develop sustainable technologies by learning from biological processes. His contributions include studying phase separation, microphase separation, and the mechanics of soft materials, with a focus on both biological systems and synthetic analogs.

Research topics

• Materials science
• Composite material
• Nanotechnology
• Chemistry
• Biology
• Chemical physics
• Cell biology
• Physics
• Biochemistry
• Chemical engineering
• Biophysics
• Paleontology
• Biological system
• Optoelectronics
• Mineralogy
• Optics
• Ecology
• Chromatography
• Crystallography
• Thermodynamics

Selected publications

• Partition Coefficients Reveal Changes in Properties of Low-Contrast Biomolecular Condensates

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2026-02-23

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Biomolecular condensates are domains within cells with distinct compositions, held together by intermolecular cohesion. They are implicated in a variety of cellular processes, and in vitro studies have revealed the molecular driving forces that underly their condensation. However, in vitro condensates do not capture essential features of cellular condensates. In particular, enrichment of proteins, quantified by partition coefficients, is often exaggerated in these simplified systems. We show that the addition of free amino acids and other small molecules to model condensates can bring their partition coefficients within physiological range. In this limit, where there is low biochemical contrast between condensates and their surroundings, we observe striking changes to condensate behavior. Such low-contrast condensates exhibit large fluctuations in shape and composition and show enhanced sensitivity to changes in their environment. These behaviors reflect dramatic shifts to their material properties, including interfacial tension, rheology, and chemical susceptibilities. We note remarkable similarities in these effects across seemingly unrelated two-phase fluid systems. To explain these trends, we reformulate classic models of critical phenomena in terms of partition coefficients. This framework simplifies application of theory to experiments with near-critical fluids and suggests new experimental approaches for assessing condensate physiology in live cells.

  PublisherDOI

• Polymerization from Lipid Membranes

  Biomacromolecules · 2026-02-20

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  In living cells, lipid bilayer membranes can be asymmetrically functionalized with brush-like layers of macromolecules. Here, we describe a lipid membrane-initiated polymerization reaction for the growth of thick and dense polymer brushes directly from one side of lipid membranes. By incorporating a novel lipid-based polymerization initiator into lipid bilayers, we grew poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) brushes from supported lipid bilayers (SLBs), small unilamellar vesicles (SUVs), and giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs), via aqueous atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). We used quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) to quantify growth kinetics from SLBs and SUVs. The resulting polymer brushes were up to 70 nm thick. Growth from GUVs led to the spontaneous transformation of spheroidal vesicles into dense, bush-like networks of “strings of pearls”. Broadly speaking, this approach could offer improved performance for biomedical applications and a valuable in vitro model for the biophysics of asymmetric lipid membranes.

  PublisherDOI

• Susceptibility and Regulation of Biomolecular Condensates by Solutes

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2026-01-15 · 3 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Biomolecular condensates compartmentalize biochemistry in living cells. While in vitro models of condensates involve only a few components, the cytoplasm is a complex mixture with thousands of components, including many small molecules. While many macromolecular drivers of phase separation have been revealed, the contributions from small molecules have received little attention. To quantify the impact of solutes on biomolecular condensates, we introduce susceptibility, a dimensionless descriptor of condensate response to solute perturbations. We measured how three model condensates, assembled by distinct cohesive mechanisms, respond to diverse solutes including amino acids and nucleotides. Generically, solutes shift condensate phase equilibria, with susceptibilities spanning over four orders of magnitude. These values reflect underlying molecular interactions, consistent with theoretical descriptions including Flory-Huggins and polyphasic linkages. As one example of the predictive power of susceptibility, we exploit enzymatic activity to induce condensation and modulate material properties. Our work establishes susceptibility as an indicator of the sensitivity of biomolecular condensates to solutes, with implications for cell physiology and therapeutic design. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Cells compartmentalize biochemistry using biomolecular condensates formed through phase separation. Although cells contain thousands of small molecules, little is known about their influence on condensation. In such complex mixtures, mapping full phase diagrams is infeasible. Alternatively, we introduce susceptibility to characterize system response around a working composition. Using three distinct model condensates and over a dozen solutes, we observe susceptibilities varying over four orders of magnitude. We provide a general thermodynamic framework that clarifies the driving forces behind these responses, rationalizing their magnitude and their dependence on location in the phase diagram. Our work provides a framework for understanding and harnessing solutes to regulate biomolecular condensation, with implications for cell physiology and therapeutic design.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Author response for "Thermodynamics of microphase separation in a swollen, strain-stiffening polymer network"

  2025-12-02

  peer-reviewSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Controlling Polymerization-Induced Phase Separation in the Synthesis of Porous Gels

  ACS Nano · 2025-12-02 · 3 citations

  article

  Porous gels, gels with solvent-filled pores that are much larger than their mesh size, are widely used in engineering and biomedical applications due to their tunable mechanics, high water content, and selective permeability. Among various strategies to create porous gels, polymerization-induced phase separation (PIPS) has shown particular promise. However, the conditions that trigger and control PIPS are poorly understood. Here, we systematically investigate the influence of solvent quality, polymeric precursor molecular weight, and polymer concentration on phase separation in polymerizing poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate gels. Phase separation occurs when the precursor solution concentration is below the overlap concentration. Phase-separated gels have a pore geometry that is controlled by solvent quality: better solvents result in smaller pores, while worse solvents can create superporous, highly absorbant gels. Motivated by our results, we propose a theory that predicts when phase separation occurs in polymerizing gels, applicable across a wide range of polymer/solvent gel systems. Our results provide a framework for the rational design of porous gels.

  PublisherDOI

• BPS2025 - What is the structure of a biomolecular condensate?

  Biophysical Journal · 2025-02-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Controlling polymerization-induced phase separation in the synthesis of porous gels

  ArXiv.org · 2025-08-21

  preprintOpen access

  Porous gels -- gels with solvent-filled pores that are much larger than their mesh size -- are widely used in engineering and biomedical applications due to their tunable mechanics, high water content, and selective permeability. Among various strategies to create porous gels, polymerization-induced phase separation (PIPS) has shown particular promise. However, the conditions that trigger and control PIPS remain poorly understood. Here, we systematically investigate the influence of solvent quality, polymeric precursor molecular weight, and polymer concentration on phase separation in polymerizing poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate gels. We find that phase separation occurs when the precursor solution concentration is below the overlap concentration. Phase-separated gels have a pore geometry that is controlled by solvent quality: better solvents result in smaller pores, while worse solvents can create superporous, highly-absorbant gels. Motivated by our results, we propose a theory that predicts when phase separation occurs in polymerizing gels, applicable across a wide range of polymer/solvent gel systems. Our results provide a framework for the rational design of porous gels.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Author response for "Thermodynamics of microphase separation in a swollen, strain-stiffening polymer network"

  2025-10-11

  peer-reviewSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Ice and air: visualisation of freezing spread and freeze–thaw embolism in young <i>Liriodendron tulipifera</i> leaves

  Journal of Experimental Botany · 2025-06-07

  article

  Spring freezing is an unforgiving stress for young leaves, often leading to death and with consequences for tree productivity and survival. While both the water-transport system and living tissues are vulnerable to freezing, we do not currently know whether damage to one or both of these systems causes death in leaves exposed to freezing. In this study, whole saplings of Liriodendron tulipifera were exposed to freezing and thawing trajectories designed to mimic natural spring freezes. We monitored the formation of freeze-thaw xylem embolism and damage to photosynthetic tissues and found a predictable progression of ice formation across the leaf surface that was strongly influenced by leaf- vein architecture, notably the presence or absence of bundle-sheath extensions. Our results also showed that freeze-thaw embolism occurred only in the lowest vein orders where mean vessel diameter exceeded 30 µm. With evidence of both freeze-thaw embolism and damage to photosynthetic tissue, we conclude that this dual-mode of lethality in leaves might be common among other wide-vesseled angiosperm leaves, potentially playing a role in limiting geographic distributions, and demonstrate that bundle sheath extensions might stall or even prevent freezing spread.

  PublisherDOI

• Ice and air: Visualisation of freeze-thaw embolism and freezing spread in young L. tulipifera leaves&amp;#160;

  2025-03-14

  preprintOpen access

  Spring freezing is an unforgiving stress for young leaves, often leading to death, with consequences for tree productivity and survival. With an increasingly unpredictable climate leading to more spring freezing events, it is important the we understand how freezing damages young leaf tissue. While both the plant water transport system and living tissues are vulnerable to freezing, we do not know whether damage to one or both of these systems causes death in young leaves exposed to freezing and thawing. Whole saplings of Liriodendron tulipifera were exposed to freezing and thawing trajectories designed to mimic natural spring freezes. We visualised freezing damage to the water transport system (xylem embolism) and living tissues (mesophyll freezing, decline in chlorophyll fluorescence). We 1.) provide the first visualisation of freeze-thaw embolism in leaves and compare this to drought-embolism, 2.) reveal a predictable progression of ice formation within the mesophyll which is strongly influenced by leaf vein architecture, notably the presence or absence of bundle-sheath extensions, and 3.) show that freeze-thaw embolism occurs only in the largest vein orders where mean vessel diameter exceeds 30&amp;#181;m. With evidence of both freeze-thaw embolism and damage to photosynthetic tissue, we conclude that this dual-mode lethality may be common among other wide-vesseled angiosperm-leaves, potentially playing a role in limiting tree distributions, and show that bundle-sheath extensions may stall or even prevent freezing spread.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• CAREER: Self-Assembly and Direct Fabrication of Stimuli-Responsive Colloidal Materials Governed by Proteins to Enable Applications of Nanotechnology in Biology and Medicine

  NSF · $400k · 2006–2012

• MRI: Development of Programmable Substrates for Quantitative Investigation of Mechanotransduction using Holographic Optical Tweezer (HOT) Arrays

  NSF · $1.1M · 2006–2012

• Electrophoretic Inks with Structural Color

  NSF · $302k · 2012–2016

Frequent coauthors

• Robert W. Style

  125 shared

• J. S. Wettlaufer

  49 shared

• Vinodkumar Saranathan

  Krea University

  47 shared

• Richard O. Prum

  American Museum of Natural History

  44 shared

• S. G. J. Mochrie

  Yale University

  30 shared

• Heeso Noh

  Kookmin University

  28 shared

• Rostislav Boltyanskiy

  Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

  23 shared

• Aaron F. Mertz

  University of Chicago

  23 shared

Labs

• Eric Dufresne LaboratoryPI

Education

• Post-doctoral researcher, Engineering and Applied Science

  Harvard University

  2004

• Ph.D., Physics

  The University of Chicago

  2000

• BS, Physics

  Yale University

  1996