Dynamics of Synthetic Membraneless Organelles in Microfluidic Droplets.

Cells can form membraneless organelles by liquid-liquid phase separation. As these organelles are highly dynamic, it is crucial to understand the kinetics of these phase transitions. Here, we use droplet-based microfluidics to mix reagents by chaotic advection and observe nucleation, growth, and coarsening in volumes comparable to cells (pL) and on timescales of seconds.