Eric Dufresne

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

Selected publications

• Elastic ripening and inhibition of liquid-liquid phase separation

  Nature Physics · 2020 · 137 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  In a process dubbed elastic ripening, compressive stresses in a polymer network are shown to suppress phase separation of the solvent that swells it, stabilizing mixtures well beyond the liquid-liquid phase separation boundary. Phase separation is a central concept of materials physics(1-3) and has recently emerged as an important route to compartmentalization within living cells(4-6). Biological phase separation features activity(7), complex compositions(8) and elasticity(9), which reveal impor…

  DOI

• Phase separation of a microtubule plus-end tracking protein into a fluid fractal network

  Nature Communications · 2025-01-30 · 9 citations

  articleOpen access

  Microtubule plus-end tracking proteins (+TIPs) participate in nearly all microtubule-based cellular processes and have recently been proposed to function as liquid condensates. However, their formation and internal organization remain poorly understood. Here, we have study the phase separation of Bik1, a CLIP-170 family member and key +TIP involved in budding yeast cell division. Bik1 is a dimer with a rod-shaped conformation primarily defined by its central coiled-coil domain. Its liquid conden…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Run-and-tumble dynamics of active giant vesicles

  Soft Matter · 2025-01-01 · 6 citations

  articleOpen access

  Cell-inspired architectures offer a promising path toward self-regulating and functional artificial microswimmers. Here, we fabricate Janus lipid vesicles with reconfigurable motion enabled by membrane fluidity. Depending on temperature and their membrane composition giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) can undergo spontaneous phase separation, forming Janus-like structures at room temperature. We demonstrate that due to their Janus architecture, they self-propel under external electric fields as t…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Characterizing hydrogel behavior under compression with gel-freezing osmometry

  Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids · 2025-05-03 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  Hydrogels are particularly versatile materials that are widely found in both Nature and industry. One key reason for this versatility is their high water content, which lets them dramatically change their volume and many of their mechanical properties – often by orders of magnitude – as they swell and dry out. Currently, we lack techniques that can precisely characterize how these properties change with water content. To overcome this challenge, here we develop Gel-Freezing Osmometry (GelFrO): a…

  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…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

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

Similar researchers at Cornell University

• Lawrence Gibbonsh-121
• Michael Niemackh-76
• Yuval Grossmanh-73