A First Glimpse of Nucleation of Phase Transitions in Living Cells

Prion formation and propagation involve the nucleation and growth of protein-based supramolecular assemblies. In this issue of Molecular Cell, Khan et al. (2018) report novel methods that enable quantitative, high-throughput analyses of nucleation of supramolecular assemblies by prion-forming proteins in living cells. Their approaches turn living cells into veritable test tubes for biophysical investigations.