Nicolas Fawzi's work centers on determining the structure, dynamics, interactions of large assemblies of intrinsically disordered proteins. In particular, we focus on 1) protein aggregates implicated in Alzheimer’s Disease and 2) liquid-liquid phase separated forms of RNA-binding proteins associated with inclusion formation in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS / Lou Gehrig's disease) and frontotemporal dementia. He received undergraduate degrees in bioengineering and marketing at the University of Pennsylvania. He received a Ph.D. from the Joint Graduate Group in Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley and UCSF for his work with Teresa Head-Gordon on molecular simulation of protein aggregation, and completed postdoctoral training in the group of G. Marius Clore at the National Institutes of Health in biomolecular NMR spectroscopy of protein association and aggregation. Nicolas Fawzi joined the faculty at Brown in January 2013.
| Wake N, Weng SL, Zheng T, Wang SH, Kirilenko V, Mittal J, Fawzi NL. "Expanding the molecular grammar of polar residues and arginine in FUS phase separation." Nature Chemical Biology, vol. 21, no. 7, 2025, pp. 1076-1088. |
| Yan X, Kuster D, Mohanty P, Nijssen J, Pombo-García K, Garcia Morato J, Rizuan A, Franzmann TM, Sergeeva A, Ly AM, Liu F, Passos PM, George L, Wang SH, Shenoy J, Danielson HL, Ozguney B, Honigmann A, Ayala YM, Fawzi NL, Dickson DW, Rossoll W, Mittal J, Alberti S, Hyman AA. "Intra-condensate demixing of TDP-43 inside stress granules generates pathological aggregates." Cell, vol. 188, no. 15, 2025, pp. 4123-4140.e18. |
| Zheng T, Wake N, Weng SL, Perdikari TM, Murthy AC, Mittal J, Fawzi NL. "Molecular insights into the effect of 1,6-hexanediol on FUS phase separation." EMBO J, vol. 44, no. 10, 2025, pp. 2725-2740. |
| Dang H, Lucci A, Barry A, Johnson V, Ruiz B, Reynolds L, Wojnar A, Chewe K, Pomyen Y, Eckert C, Zhang K, Hill J, Shah A, Bodzin A, Grabocka E, Gaida M, Fawzi N. "Phase separation of NELFE modulates chromatin accessibility to promote dichotomous signaling pathways in hepatocellular carcinoma." Research square, 2025. |
| Uechi H, Sridharan S, Nijssen J, Bilstein J, Iglesias-Artola JM, Kishigami S, Casablancas-Antras V, Poser I, Martinez EJ, Boczek E, Wagner M, Tomschke N, de Jesus Domingues AM, Pal A, Doeleman T, Kour S, Anderson EN, Stein F, Lee HO, Zhang X, Fritsch AW, Jahnel M, Fürsch J, Murthy AC, Alberti S, Bickle M, Fawzi NL, Nadler A, David DC, Pandey UB, Hermann A, Stengel F, Davis BG, Baldwin AJ, Savitski MM, Hyman AA, Wheeler RJ. "Small-molecule dissolution of stress granules by redox modulation benefits ALS models." Nature Chemical Biology, 2025. |
| Mohanty P, Rizuan A, Kim YC, Fawzi NL, Mittal J. "A complex network of interdomain interactions underlies the conformational ensemble of monomeric TDP-43 and modulates its phase behavior." Protein Sci., vol. 33, no. 2, 2024, pp. e4891. |
| Ray M, Zaborowsky J, Mahableshwarkar P, Vaidyanathan S, Shum J, Viswanathan R, Huang A, Wang SH, Johnson V, Wake N, Conard AM, Conicella AE, Puterbaugh R, Fawzi NL, Larschan E. "Dual DNA/RNA-binding factor regulates dynamics of hnRNP splicing condensates." bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology, 2024. |
| Wake N, Weng SL, Zheng T, Wang SH, Kirilenko V, Mittal J, Fawzi NL. "Expanding the molecular grammar of polar residues and arginine in FUS prion-like domain phase separation and aggregation." bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology, 2024. |
| Yan X, Kuster D, Mohanty P, Nijssen J, Pombo-García K, Rizuan A, Franzmann TM, Sergeeva A, Passos PM, George L, Wang SH, Shenoy J, Danielson HL, Honigmann A, Ayala YM, Fawzi NL, Mittal J, Alberti S, Hyman AA. "Intra-condensate demixing of TDP-43 inside stress granules generates pathological aggregates." bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology, 2024. |
| O'Connell LC, Johnson V, Otis JP, Hutton AK, Murthy AC, Liang MC, Wang SH, Fawzi NL, Mowry KL. "Intrinsically disordered regions and RNA binding domains contribute to protein enrichment in biomolecular condensates in Xenopus oocytes." Scientific reports, vol. 14, no. 1, 2024, pp. 27890. |
| Rizuan A, Shenoy J, Mohanty P, Dos Passos PMS, Mercado Ortiz JF, Bai L, Viswanathan R, Wang SH, Johnson V, Mamede LD, Ayala YM, Ghirlando R, Mittal J, Fawzi NL. "Structural details of helix-mediated TDP-43 C-terminal domain multimerization." bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology, 2024. |
| Wang SH, Zheng T, Fawzi NL. "Structure and interactions of prion-like domains in transcription factor Efg1 phase separation." Biophysical Journal, vol. 123, no. 11, 2024, pp. 1481-1493. |
| Mohanty P, Shenoy J, Rizuan A, Mercado-Ortiz JF, Fawzi NL, Mittal J. "A synergy between site-specific and transient interactions drives the phase separation of a disordered, low-complexity domain." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 120, no. 34, 2023, pp. e2305625120. |
| Guo L, Mann JR, Mauna JC, Copley KE, Wang H, Rubien JD, Odeh HM, Lin J, Lee BL, Ganser L, Robinson E, Kim KM, Murthy AC, Paul T, Portz B, Gleixner AM, Diaz Z, Carey JL, Smirnov A, Padilla G, Lavorando E, Espy C, Shang Y, Huang EJ, Chesi A, Fawzi NL, Myong S, Donnelly CJ, Shorter J. "Defining RNA oligonucleotides that reverse deleterious phase transitions of RNA-binding proteins with prion-like domains." bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology, 2023. |
| Maltseva D, Chatterjee S, Yu CC, Brzezinski M, Nagata Y, Gonella G, Murthy AC, Stachowiak JC, Fawzi NL, Parekh SH, Bonn M. "Fibril formation and ordering of disordered FUS LC driven by hydrophobic interactions." Nature Chemistry, vol. 15, no. 8, 2023, pp. 1146-1154. |
| Kumar MS, Stallworth KM, Murthy AC, Lim SM, Li N, Jain A, Munro JB, Fawzi NL, Lagier-Tourenne C, Bosco DA. "Interactions between FUS and the C-terminal Domain of Nup62 are Sufficient for their Co-phase Separation into Amorphous Assemblies." Journal of molecular biology, vol. 435, no. 6, 2023, pp. 167972. |
| O'Connell LC, Johnson V, Hutton AK, Otis JP, Murthy AC, Liang MC, Wang SH, Fawzi NL, Mowry KL. "Intrinsically disordered regions and RNA binding domains contribute to protein enrichment in biomolecular condensates in Xenopus oocytes." bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology, 2023. |
| Krevert CS, Chavez D, Chatterjee S, Stelzl LS, Pütz S, Roeters SJ, Rudzinski JF, Fawzi NL, Girard M, Parekh SH, Hunger J. "Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation of the Intrinsically Disordered Domain of the Fused in Sarcoma Protein Results in Substantial Slowing of Hydration Dynamics." The journal of physical chemistry letters, vol. 14, no. 49, 2023, pp. 11224-11234. |
| Staples MI, Frazer C, Fawzi NL, Bennett RJ. "Phase separation in fungi." Nature Microbiology, vol. 8, no. 3, 2023, pp. 375-386. |
| Wang SH, Zheng T, Fawzi NL. "Structure and position-specific interactions of prion-like domains in transcription factor Efg1 phase separation." bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology, 2023. |
| Viola MG, Perdikari TM, Trebino CE, Rahmani N, Mathews KL, Pena CM, Chua XY, Xuan B, LaBreck CJ, Fawzi NL, Camberg JL. "An enhancer sequence in the intrinsically disordered region of FtsZ promotes polymer-guided substrate processing by ClpXP protease." Protein Sci., vol. 31, no. 5, 2022, pp. e4306. |
| Giambruno R, Grzybowska EA, Fawzi NL, Dormann D. "Editorial: The Role of Protein Post-Translational Modifications in Protein-RNA Interactions and RNP Assemblies." Frontiers in molecular biosciences, vol. 8, 2022, pp. 831810. |
| Chatterjee S, Kan Y, Brzezinski M, Koynov K, Regy RM, Murthy AC, Burke KA, Michels JJ, Mittal J, Fawzi NL, Parekh SH. "Reversible Kinetic Trapping of FUS Biomolecular Condensates." Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany), vol. 9, no. 4, 2022, pp. e2104247. |
| Perdikari TM, Jovic N, Dignon GL, Kim YC, Fawzi NL, Mittal J. "A predictive coarse-grained model for position-specific effects of post-translational modifications." Biophysical Journal, vol. 120, no. 7, 2021, pp. 1187-1197. |
| Fawzi NL, Parekh SH, Mittal J. "Biophysical studies of phase separation integrating experimental and computational methods." Current Opinion in Structural Biology, vol. 70, 2021, pp. 78-86. |
| Duan J, Rieder L, Colonnetta MM, Huang A, Mckenney M, Watters S, Deshpande G, Jordan W, Fawzi N, Larschan E. "CLAMP and Zelda function together to promote Drosophila zygotic genome activation." eLife, vol. 10, 2021. |
| Lin YC, Kumar MS, Ramesh N, Anderson EN, Nguyen AT, Kim B, Cheung S, McDonough JA, Skarnes WC, Lopez-Gonzalez R, Landers JE, Fawzi NL, Mackenzie IRA, Lee EB, Nickerson JA, Grunwald D, Pandey UB, Bosco DA. "Interactions between ALS-linked FUS and nucleoporins are associated with defects in the nucleocytoplasmic transport pathway." Nature Neuroscience, vol. 24, no. 8, 2021, pp. 1077-1088. |
| Yuan F, Alimohamadi H, Bakka B, Trementozzi AN, Day KJ, Fawzi NL, Rangamani P, Stachowiak JC. "Membrane bending by protein phase separation." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 118, no. 11, 2021. |
| Murthy AC, Tang WS, Jovic N, Janke AM, Seo DH, Perdikari TM, Mittal J, Fawzi NL. "Molecular interactions contributing to FUS SYGQ LC-RGG phase separation and co-partitioning with RNA polymerase II heptads." Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, vol. 28, no. 11, 2021, pp. 923-935. |
| Bock AS, Murthy AC, Tang WS, Jovic N, Shewmaker F, Mittal J, Fawzi NL. "N-terminal acetylation modestly enhances phase separation and reduces aggregation of the low-complexity domain of RNA-binding protein fused in sarcoma." Protein Sci., vol. 30, no. 7, 2021, pp. 1337-1349. |
| Bock, Anna S., Murthy, Anastasia C., Tang, Wai Shing, Jovic, Nina, Shewmaker, Frank, Mittal, Jeetain, Fawzi, Nicolas L. "N‐terminal acetylation modestly enhances phase separation and reduces aggregation of the low‐complexity domain of RNA ‐binding protein fused in sarcoma." Protein Science, 2021. |
| Newton JC, Naik MT, Li GY, Murphy EL, Fawzi NL, Sedivy JM, Jogl G. "Phase separation of the LINE-1 ORF1 protein is mediated by the N-terminus and coiled-coil domain." Biophysical Journal, vol. 120, no. 11, 2021, pp. 2181-2191. |
| Hallegger M, Chakrabarti AM, Lee FCY, Lee BL, Amalietti AG, Odeh HM, Copley KE, Rubien JD, Portz B, Kuret K, Huppertz I, Rau F, Patani R, Fawzi NL, Shorter J, Luscombe NM, Ule J. "TDP-43 condensation properties specify its RNA-binding and regulatory repertoire." Cell, vol. 184, no. 18, 2021, pp. 4680-4696.e22. |
| Owen I, Yee D, Wyne H, Perdikari TM, Johnson V, Smyth J, Kortum R, Fawzi NL, Shewmaker F. "The oncogenic transcription factor FUS-CHOP can undergo nuclear liquid-liquid phase separation." Journal of cell science, vol. 134, no. 17, 2021. |
| Ryan, Veronica H, Perdikari, Theodora M, Naik, Mandar T, Saueressig, Camillo F, Lins, Jeremy, Dignon, Gregory L, Mittal, Jeetain, Hart, Anne C, Fawzi, Nicolas L. "Tyrosine phosphorylation regulates hnRNPA2 granule protein partitioning and reduces neurodegeneration." The EMBO Journal, vol. 40, no. 3, 2021, pp. e105001. |
| Fawzi NL. "Elastin phase separation - structure or disorder?." Nature reviews. Molecular cell biology, vol. 21, no. 10, 2020, pp. 568-569. |
| Frazer C, Staples MI, Kim Y, Hirakawa M, Dowell MA, Johnson NV, Hernday AD, Ryan VH, Fawzi NL, Finkelstein IJ, Bennett RJ. "Epigenetic cell fate in Candida albicans is controlled by transcription factor condensates acting at super-enhancer-like elements." Nature Microbiology, vol. 5, no. 11, 2020, pp. 1374-1389. |
| Zheng W, Dignon GL, Jovic N, Xu X, Regy RM, Fawzi NL, Kim YC, Best RB, Mittal J. "Molecular Details of Protein Condensates Probed by Microsecond Long Atomistic Simulations." The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, vol. 124, no. 51, 2020, pp. 11671-11679. |
| Tang WS, Fawzi NL, Mittal J. "Refining All-Atom Protein Force Fields for Polar-Rich, Prion-like, Low-Complexity Intrinsically Disordered Proteins." The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, vol. 124, no. 43, 2020, pp. 9505-9512. |
| Perdikari TM, Murthy AC, Ryan VH, Watters S, Naik MT, Fawzi NL. "SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein undergoes liquid-liquid phase separation stimulated by RNA and partitions into phases of human ribonucleoproteins." bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology, 2020. |
| Perdikari, Theodora Myrto, Murthy, Anastasia C, Ryan, Veronica H, Watters, Scott, Naik, Mandar T, Fawzi, Nicolas L. "SARS‐CoV‐2 nucleocapsid protein phase‐separates with RNA and with human hnRNPs." The EMBO Journal, vol. 39, no. 24, 2020, pp. e106478. |
| Conicella AE, Dignon GL, Zerze GH, Schmidt HB, D'Ordine AM, Kim YC, Rohatgi R, Ayala YM, Mittal J, Fawzi NL. "TDP-43 α-helical structure tunes liquid-liquid phase separation and function." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 117, no. 11, 2020, pp. 5883-5894. |
| Murthy AC, Fawzi NL. "The (un)structural biology of biomolecular liquid-liquid phase separation using NMR spectroscopy." Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol. 295, no. 8, 2020, pp. 2375-2384. |
| Ryan VH, Watters S, Amaya J, Khatiwada B, Venditti V, Naik MT, Fawzi NL. "Weak binding to the A2RE RNA rigidifies hnRNPA2 RRMs and reduces liquid-liquid phase separation and aggregation." Nucleic acids research, vol. 48, no. 18, 2020, pp. 10542-10554. |
| Stackpole EE, Akins MR, Ivshina M, Murthy AC, Fawzi NL, Fallon JR. "EGFP insertional mutagenesis reveals multiple FXR2P fibrillar states with differing ribosome association in neurons." Biology Open, vol. 8, no. 8, 2019. |
| Yanagi KS, Wu Z, Amaya J, Chapkis N, Duffy AM, Hajdarovic KH, Held A, Mathur AD, Russo K, Ryan VH, Steinert BL, Whitt JP, Fallon JR, Fawzi NL, Lipscombe D, Reenan RA, Wharton KA, Hart AC. "Meta-analysis of Genetic Modifiers Reveals Candidate Dysregulated Pathways in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis." Neuroscience, vol. 396, 2019, pp. A3-A20. |
| Murthy AC, Dignon GL, Kan Y, Zerze GH, Parekh SH, Mittal J, Fawzi NL. "Molecular interactions underlying liquid-liquid phase separation of the FUS low-complexity domain." Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, vol. 26, no. 7, 2019, pp. 637-648. |
| Murthy, Anastasia C., Dignon, Gregory L., Kan, Yelena, Zerze, Gül H., Parekh, Sapun H., Mittal, Jeetain, Fawzi, Nicolas L. "Molecular interactions underlying liquid−liquid phase separation of the FUS low-complexity domain." Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, vol. 26, no. 7, 2019, pp. 637-648. |
| Cable J, Brangwynne C, Seydoux G, Cowburn D, Pappu RV, Castañeda CA, Berchowitz LE, Chen Z, Jonikas M, Dernburg A, Mittag T, Fawzi NL. "Phase separation in biology and disease-a symposium report." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, vol. 1452, no. 1, 2019, pp. 3-11. |
| Ryan VH, Fawzi NL. "Physiological, Pathological, and Targetable Membraneless Organelles in Neurons." Trends in Neurosciences, vol. 42, no. 10, 2019, pp. 693-708. |
| Wang A, Conicella AE, Schmidt HB, Martin EW, Rhoads SN, Reeb AN, Nourse A, Ramirez Montero D, Ryan VH, Rohatgi R, Shewmaker F, Naik MT, Mittag T, Ayala YM, Fawzi NL. "A single N-terminal phosphomimic disrupts TDP-43 polymerization, phase separation, and RNA splicing." EMBO J, vol. 37, no. 5, 2018. |
| Wang A, Conicella AE, Schmidt HB, Martin EW, Rhoads SN, Reeb AN, Nourse A, Ramirez Montero D, Ryan VH, Rohatgi R, Shewmaker F, Naik MT, Mittag T, Ayala YM, Fawzi NL. "A single N-terminal phosphomimic disrupts TDP-43 polymerization, phase separation, and RNA splicing." EMBO J, vol. 37, no. 5, 2018. |
| Kaye EG, Booker M, Kurland JV, Conicella AE, Fawzi NL, Bulyk ML, Tolstorukov MY, Larschan E. "Differential Occupancy of Two GA-Binding Proteins Promotes Targeting of the Drosophila Dosage Compensation Complex to the Male X Chromosome." Cell Reports, vol. 22, no. 12, 2018, pp. 3227-3239. |
| Ryan, Veronica H., Dignon, Gregory L., Zerze, Gül H., Chabata, Charlene V., Silva, Rute, Conicella, Alexander E., Amaya, Joshua, Burke, Kathleen A., Mittal, Jeetain, Fawzi, Nicolas L. "Mechanistic View of hnRNPA2 Low-Complexity Domain Structure, Interactions, and Phase Separation Altered by Mutation and Arginine Methylation." Molecular Cell, vol. 69, no. 3, 2018, pp. 465-479.e7. |
| Fratta P, Sivakumar P, Humphrey J, Lo K, Ricketts T, Oliveira H, Brito-Armas JM, Kalmar B, Ule A, Yu Y, Birsa N, Bodo C, Collins T, Conicella AE, Mejia Maza A, Marrero-Gagliardi A, Stewart M, Mianne J, Corrochano S, Emmett W, Codner G, Groves M, Fukumura R, Gondo Y, Lythgoe M, Pauws E, Peskett E, Stanier P, Teboul L, Hallegger M, Calvo A, Chiò A, Isaacs AM, Fawzi NL, Wang E, Housman DE, Baralle F, Greensmith L, Buratti E, Plagnol V, Fisher EM, Acevedo-Arozena A. "Mice with endogenous TDP-43 mutations exhibit gain of splicing function and characteristics of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis." EMBO J, vol. 37, no. 11, 2018. |
| Yoshizawa T, Ali R, Jiou J, Fung HYJ, Burke KA, Kim SJ, Lin Y, Peeples WB, Saltzberg D, Soniat M, Baumhardt JM, Oldenbourg R, Sali A, Fawzi NL, Rosen MK, Chook YM. "Nuclear Import Receptor Inhibits Phase Separation of FUS through Binding to Multiple Sites." Cell, vol. 173, no. 3, 2018, pp. 693-705.e22. |
| Venditti V, Fawzi NL. "Probing the Atomic Structure of Transient Protein Contacts by Paramagnetic Relaxation Enhancement Solution NMR." Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 1688, 2018, pp. 243-255. |
| Johnston, Tatiana, Van Tyne, Daria, Chen, Roy F., Fawzi, Nicolas L., Kwon, Bumsup, Kelso, Michael J., Gilmore, Michael S., Mylonakis, Eleftherios. "Propyl-5-hydroxy-3-methyl-1-phenyl-1H-pyrazole-4-carbodithioate (HMPC): a new bacteriostatic agent against methicillin—resistant Staphylococcus aureus." Scientific Reports, vol. 8, no. 1, 2018. |
| Boeynaems S, Alberti S, Fawzi NL, Mittag T, Polymenidou M, Rousseau F, Schymkowitz J, Shorter J, Wolozin B, Van Den Bosch L, Tompa P, Fuxreiter M. "Protein Phase Separation: A New Phase in Cell Biology." Trends in cell biology, vol. 28, no. 6, 2018, pp. 420-435. |
| Mittag T, Fawzi NL. "Protein quality and miRNA slicing get into phase." J. Geophys. Res., vol. 20, no. 6, 2018, pp. 635-637. |
| Dempsey ME, Marble HD, Shen TL, Fawzi NL, Darling EM. "Synthesis and Characterization of a Magnetically Active 19F Molecular Beacon." Bioconjugate Chem., vol. 29, no. 2, 2018, pp. 335-342. |
| Amaya J, Ryan VH, Fawzi NL. "The SH3 domain of Fyn kinase interacts with and induces liquid-liquid phase separation of the low-complexity domain of hnRNPA2." Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol. 293, no. 51, 2018, pp. 19522-19531. |
| Janke AM, Seo DH, Rahmanian V, Conicella AE, Mathews KL, Burke KA, Mittal J, Fawzi NL. "Lysines in the RNA Polymerase II C-Terminal Domain Contribute to TAF15 Fibril Recruitment." Biochemistry, 2017. |
| Janke AM, Seo DH, Rahmanian V, Conicella AE, Mathews KL, Burke KA, Mittal J, Fawzi NL. "Lysines in the RNA Polymerase II C-Terminal Domain Contribute to TAF15 Fibril Recruitment." Biochemistry, 2017. |
| Boeynaems S, Bogaert E, Kovacs D, Konijnenberg A, Timmerman E, Volkov A, Guharoy M, De Decker M, Jaspers T, Ryan VH, Janke AM, Baatsen P, Vercruysse T, Kolaitis RM, Daelemans D, Taylor JP, Kedersha N, Anderson P, Impens F, Sobott F, Schymkowitz J, Rousseau F, Fawzi NL, Robberecht W, Van Damme P, Tompa P, Van Den Bosch L. "Phase Separation of C9orf72 Dipeptide Repeats Perturbs Stress Granule Dynamics." Molecular Cell, vol. 65, no. 6, 2017, pp. 1044-1055.e5. |
| Boeynaems S, Bogaert E, Kovacs D, Konijnenberg A, Timmerman E, Volkov A, Guharoy M, De Decker M, Jaspers T, Ryan VH, Janke AM, Baatsen P, Vercruysse T, Kolaitis RM, Daelemans D, Taylor JP, Kedersha N, Anderson P, Impens F, Sobott F, Schymkowitz J, Rousseau F, Fawzi NL, Robberecht W, Van Damme P, Tompa P, Van Den Bosch L. "Phase Separation of C9orf72 Dipeptide Repeats Perturbs Stress Granule Dynamics." Molecular Cell, vol. 65, no. 6, 2017, pp. 1044-1055.e5. |
| Monahan Z, Ryan VH, Janke AM, Burke KA, Rhoads SN, Zerze GH, O'Meally R, Dignon GL, Conicella AE, Zheng W, Best RB, Cole RN, Mittal J, Shewmaker F, Fawzi NL. "Phosphorylation of the FUS low-complexity domain disrupts phase separation, aggregation, and toxicity." EMBO J, vol. 36, no. 20, 2017, pp. 2951-2967. |
| Conicella AE, Zerze GH, Mittal J, Fawzi NL. "ALS Mutations Disrupt Phase Separation Mediated by α-Helical Structure in the TDP-43 Low-Complexity C-Terminal Domain." Structure (London, England : 1993), vol. 24, no. 9, 2016, pp. 1537-49. |
| Burke KA, Janke AM, Rhine CL, Fawzi NL. "Residue-by-Residue View of In Vitro FUS Granules that Bind the C-Terminal Domain of RNA Polymerase II." Molecular Cell, vol. 60, no. 2, 2015, pp. 231-41. |
| Fawzi NL, Libich DS, Ying J, Tugarinov V, Clore GM. "Characterizing methyl-bearing side chain contacts and dynamics mediating amyloid β protofibril interactions using ¹³C(methyl)-DEST and lifetime line broadening." Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl., vol. 53, no. 39, 2014, pp. 10345-9. |
| Conicella AE, Fawzi NL. "The C-terminal threonine of Aβ43 nucleates toxic aggregation via structural and dynamical changes in monomers and protofibrils." Biochemistry, vol. 53, no. 19, 2014, pp. 3095-105. |
| Libich DS, Fawzi NL, Ying J, Clore GM. "Probing the transient dark state of substrate binding to GroEL by relaxation-based solution NMR." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 110, no. 28, 2013, pp. 11361-6. |
| Ball, K. Aurelia, Phillips, Aaron H., Fawzi, Nicolas L., Wemmer, David E., Head-Gordon, Teresa. "Amyloid-Beta Heterogeneous Conformational Ensembles: Differences Between the 40- and 42-Residue Peptides and Implications for Dimer Polyamorphism." Biophysical Journal, vol. 102, no. 3, 2012, pp. 631a. |
| Venditti V, Fawzi NL, Clore GM. "An efficient protocol for incorporation of an unnatural amino acid in perdeuterated recombinant proteins using glucose-based media." Journal of biomolecular NMR, vol. 52, no. 3, 2012, pp. 191-5. |
| Cellmer T, Fawzi NL. "Coarse-grained simulations of protein aggregation." Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 899, 2012, pp. 453-70. |
| Fawzi NL, Ying J, Torchia DA, Clore GM. "Probing exchange kinetics and atomic resolution dynamics in high-molecular-weight complexes using dark-state exchange saturation transfer NMR spectroscopy." Nat Protoc, vol. 7, no. 8, 2012, pp. 1523-33. |
| Fawzi NL, Fleissner MR, Anthis NJ, Kálai T, Hideg K, Hubbell WL, Clore GM. "A rigid disulfide-linked nitroxide side chain simplifies the quantitative analysis of PRE data." Journal of biomolecular NMR, vol. 51, no. 1-2, 2011, pp. 105-14. |
| Fawzi NL, Ying J, Ghirlando R, Torchia DA, Clore GM. "Atomic-resolution dynamics on the surface of amyloid-β protofibrils probed by solution NMR." J. Geophys. Res., vol. 480, no. 7376, 2011, pp. 268-72. |
| Venditti V, Fawzi NL, Clore GM. "Automated sequence- and stereo-specific assignment of methyl-labeled proteins by paramagnetic relaxation and methyl-methyl nuclear Overhauser enhancement spectroscopy." Journal of biomolecular NMR, vol. 51, no. 3, 2011, pp. 319-28. |
| Ball KA, Phillips AH, Nerenberg PS, Fawzi NL, Wemmer DE, Head-Gordon T. "Homogeneous and heterogeneous tertiary structure ensembles of amyloid-β peptides." Biochemistry, vol. 50, no. 35, 2011, pp. 7612-28. |
| Fawzi, Nicolas L., Ying, Jinfa, Torchia, Dennis A., Clore, G. Marius. "Kinetics of Amyloid-Beta Monomer to Oligomer Exchange by NMR Relaxation." Biophysical Journal, vol. 100, no. 3, 2011, pp. 531a. |
| Fawzi, Nicolas L., Phillips, Aaron H., Ruscio, Jory Z., Doucleff, Michaeleen, Wemmer, David E., Head-Gordon, Teresa. "Structure and Dynamics of the Aβ 21–30 Peptide from the Interplay of NMR Experiments and Molecular Simulations." J. Am. Chem. Soc., vol. 133, no. 30, 2011, pp. 11816-11816. |
| Ruscio JZ, Fawzi NL, Head-Gordon T. "How hot? Systematic convergence of the replica exchange method using multiple reservoirs." Journal of computational chemistry, vol. 31, no. 3, 2010, pp. 620-7. |
| Fawzi NL, Ying J, Torchia DA, Clore GM. "Kinetics of amyloid beta monomer-to-oligomer exchange by NMR relaxation." J. Am. Chem. Soc., vol. 132, no. 29, 2010, pp. 9948-51. |
| Fawzi NL, Doucleff M, Suh JY, Clore GM. "Mechanistic details of a protein-protein association pathway revealed by paramagnetic relaxation enhancement titration measurements." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 107, no. 4, 2010, pp. 1379-84. |
| Yap EH, Fawzi NL, Head-Gordon T. "A coarse-grained alpha-carbon protein model with anisotropic hydrogen-bonding." Proteins, vol. 70, no. 3, 2008, pp. 626-38. |
| Fawzi NL, Yap EH, Okabe Y, Kohlstedt KL, Brown SP, Head-Gordon T. "Contrasting disease and nondisease protein aggregation by molecular simulation." Accounts of Chemical Research, vol. 41, no. 8, 2008, pp. 1037-47. |
| Fawzi, Nicolas Lux, Kohlstedt, Kevin L., Okabe, Yuka, Head-Gordon, Teresa. "Protofibril Assemblies of the Arctic, Dutch, and Flemish Mutants of the Alzheimer's Aβ1–40 Peptide." Biophysical Journal, vol. 94, no. 6, 2008, pp. 2007-2016. |
| Fawzi NL, Phillips AH, Ruscio JZ, Doucleff M, Wemmer DE, Head-Gordon T. "Structure and dynamics of the Abeta(21-30) peptide from the interplay of NMR experiments and molecular simulations." J. Am. Chem. Soc., vol. 130, no. 19, 2008, pp. 6145-58. |
| Fawzi NL, Okabe Y, Yap EH, Head-Gordon T. "Determining the critical nucleus and mechanism of fibril elongation of the Alzheimer's Abeta(1-40) peptide." Journal of molecular biology, vol. 365, no. 2, 2007, pp. 535-50. |
| Lin MS, Fawzi NL, Head-Gordon T. "Hydrophobic potential of mean force as a solvation function for protein structure prediction." Structure (London, England : 1993), vol. 15, no. 6, 2007, pp. 727-40. |
| Fawzi, Nicolas L., Chubukov, Victor, Clark, Louis A., Brown, Scott, Head-Gordon, Teresa. "Influence of denatured and intermediate states of folding on protein aggregation." Protein Sci., vol. 14, no. 4, 2005, pp. 993-1003. |
| Pfleger, Brian F., Fawzi, Nicolas J., Keasling, Jay D. "Optimization of DsRed production inEscherichia coli: Effect of ribosome binding site sequestration on translation efficiency." Biotechnology and Bioengineering, vol. 92, no. 5, 2005, pp. 553-558. |
| Marianayagam NJ, Fawzi NL, Head-Gordon T. "Protein folding by distributed computing and the denatured state ensemble." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 102, no. 46, 2005, pp. 16684-9. |
R01GM118530 (PI: Fawzi) 4/7/2016 – 3/31/2021
NIH, NIGMS ($1,129,917 direct, $472,058 indirect)
Turning off the molecular switch for pathological self-assembly of FUS
The major goal of project is to determine the structure of the protein FUS and its ALS-associated variants along its assembly pathway and test the potential for post translational modification to alter the self-assembly in cancer and neurodegenerative disease.
R01NS116176 (MPIs: Fawzi and Mittal) 4/1/2020 – 3/31/2025
NIH, NINDS+NIA ($2,649,190 direct, $699,545 indirect)
Functional and pathological interactions of TDP-43
The major goals of this project is to determine the atomistic details of the assembly of a helical sub-region of TDP-43, identify how known and novel post-translational modifications and disease-associated mutations alter TDP-43 assembly and function, and map the structural basis of interactions of TDP-43 with poly(ADP-ribose) and importin machinery that serve as promising therapeutic targets.
RGP0045/2018 (Parekh and Fawzi, equal co-investigators) 7/1/2018 – 6/30/2021
Human Frontier Science Program (at Brown: $340,909 direct, 34,091 indirect)
Structure and biophysics of disordered domains mediating RNP granules: from atoms to cells
The major goal of this project is to develop a physical-chemical toolbox based on in situ molecular spectroscopies to experimentally observe protein contacts that stabilize membraneless organelles in cells.
1845734 (PI: Fawzi) 2/1/2019 – 1/31/2024
National Science Foundation (BIO, MCB) ($913,703 total)
CAREER: Structural aspects of glutamine-rich domain liquid-liquid phase separation in transcription and RNA processing
The major goal of this project is to reveal the molecular interactions of glutamine residues in phase separation of regions of proteins conserved from yeast to invertebrates.
Carney Innovation Award (PIs: Hart and Fawzi) 1/1/2020 – 12/31/2021
Carney Institute for Brain Science, Brown University ($300,000 total; $150,000 for my project)
Targeting Huntington’s disease from disease genes to molecular interactions
The major goals of this project are to identify the toxic species in HD using new organism models of Huntingtin’s disease and probe the molecular structure of these toxic assemblies.
Brown COVID-19 Research Seed Award 5/15/2020 – 5/15/2021
Brown University (PI: Naik; Co-PIs: Jogl, Atwood, Fawzi) ($40,000 shared)
Structure-based design of inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein
This research will identify inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein that can potentially be further developed as drugs against coronaviruses.
R21GM118530 (PI: Bennett, Co-I: Fawzi) 1/15/2018 – 12/31/2020 (NCE)
NIAID, NIH (for my minor subproject: $10,032 direct, $6,270 indirect)
Defining the role of prion-like domains in a C. albicans transcription factor network
The major goal of this project is to evaluate if the glutamine-rich disordered domains of transcription factors regulating phenotype switching in a pathogenic yeast control transcription via phase separation mediated self-assembly
P20GM103430 (Cho, PI; Fawzi, Project Mentor) 5/1/2019-04/30/2021
RI-IDeA/INBRE; Prime sponsor: NIGMS/NIH
Collaborative Research Project ($60,000 direct, $37,500 indirect)
The effects of N-terminal acetylation on the structure and aggregation of Tau
The goal of this project is to provide mentorship for Dr. William Holmes, Assistant Professor at Rhode Island College (a PUI in Providence, RI) and to assist and support his laboratory’s structural and biophysical characterization of tau and the effect of N-terminal acetylation.
Selected from 25 peer reviewed publications:
Conicella, A.E., Zerze, G.H., Mittal, J., Fawzi, N.L. (2016) ALS mutations disrupt phase separation mediated by α-helical structure in the TDP-43 low complexity C-terminal domain. Structure. 24, 1537-49.
Burke, KA, Janke, AM, Rhine, CL & Fawzi, NL†. Residue-by-Residue View of In Vitro FUS Granules that Bind the C-Terminal Domain of RNA Polymerase II. Molecular Cell. 60:231-41. (2015)
Conicella AE, Fawzi NL†. The C-terminal threonine of Aβ43 nucleates toxic aggregation via structural and dynamical changes in monomers and protofibrils. Biochemistry. 53:3095-105. (2014)
Fawzi NL†, Libich DS,Ying J, Tugarinov V., Clore GM†. Characterizing methyl-bearing side chain contacts and dynamics mediating amyloid β protofibril interactions using 13Cmethyl-DEST and lifetime line broadening. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 53:10345-9. (2014)
Libich, DS, Fawzi, NL, Ying, J, Clore, GM. Probing the transient dark state of substrate binding to GroEL by relaxation-based solution NMR. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U S A, 110, 11361-6. (2013).
Fawzi NL, Ying J, Torchia DA, Clore GM. Probing exchange kinetics and atomic resolution dynamics in high-molecular-weight complexes using dark-state exchange saturation transfer NMR spectroscopy. Nat Protoc. 7: 1523-1533. (2012).
Ball KA, Phillips AH, Nerenberg PS, Fawzi NL, Wemmer DE, Head-Gordon T. Homogeneous and heterogeneous tertiary structure ensembles of amyloid-beta peptides. Biochemistry. 50: 7612-7628. (2011).
Fawzi NL, Fleissner MR, Anthis NJ, Kalai T, Hideg K, Hubbell WL, Clore GM. A rigid disulfide-linked nitroxide side chain simplifies the quantitative analysis of PRE data. J Biomol NMR. 51: 105-114. (2011).
Fawzi NL, Ying J, Ghirlando R, Torchia DA, Clore GM. Atomic-resolution dynamics on the surface of amyloid-beta protofibrils probed by solution NMR. Nature. 480: 268-272. (2011).
Fawzi NL, Ying J, Torchia DA, Clore GM. Kinetics of amyloid beta monomer-to-oligomer exchange by NMR relaxation. J Am Chem Soc. 132: 9948-9951. (2010).
Fawzi NL, Doucleff M, Suh JY, Clore GM. Mechanistic details of a protein-protein association pathway revealed by paramagnetic relaxation enhancement titration measurements. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 107: 1379-1384. (2010).
Fawzi NL, Okabe Y, Yap EH, Head-Gordon T. Determining the critical nucleus and mechanism of fibril elongation of the Alzheimer's Abeta(1-40) peptide. J Mol Biol. 365: 535-550. (2007).
Marianayagam NJ, Fawzi NL, Head-Gordon T. Protein folding by distributed computing and the denatured state ensemble. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 102: 16684-16689. (2005).
Brown S, Fawzi NJ, Head-Gordon T. Coarse-grained sequences for protein folding and design. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 100: 10712-10717. (2003).
| Year | Degree | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | PhD | University of California, Berkeley |
| 2002 | BS | University of Pennsylvania |
| G. Marius Clore group NIDDK | 2008-2012 |
| Name | Title |
|---|---|
| Bennett, Richard | Charles A. and Helen B. Stuart Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Chair of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology |
| Larschan, Erica | Associate Professor of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry |
| Mowry, Kimberly | Robin Chemers Neustein Professor of Biomedicine |
| Sharma, Surendra | Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (Research), Professor of Pediatrics (Research) |
BIOL1300 Biomolecular Interactions: Health, Disease, and Drug Design, Fall, Monday 3-5:30pm
| BIOL 1300 - Biomolecular Interactions: Health, Disease and Drug Design |
| BIOL 2300 - Biomolecular Interactions: Health, Disease, and Drug Design |
