Experimentalist excited by soft matter, DNA nanoscience, and biomolecular LLPS. Junior group leader - JGU-Mainz. Postdoc - UCSB. PhD - NYU. BA - UChicago.

Joined March 2023
Photos and videos
21 Nov 2025
This paper holds personal significance for me, as it was my first foray into biomolecular phase separation and DNA self-assembly. I am continuing work on reaction-condensation mechanisms in my new independent group at JGU-Mainz. Stay tuned for more!
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Only two days left to apply for positions in my new group in Mainz! The Nature Jobs posting will close on July 11th, but you can still find application details at sites.google.com/view/swilke…

20 Jun 2025
Fully funded postdoc & PhD positions available in experimental DNA biomaterials & soft matter physics at JGU-Mainz! More info & apply here (by July 11th) ⬇️ nature.com/naturecareers/job… #Postdoc #PhD #Biophysics #SoftMatter #Biomaterials #JobOpportunity
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Sam Wilken retweeted
S. Wilken, G. R. Abraham, O. A. Saleh, Condensation and activator/repressor control of a transcription-regulated biomolecular liquid. arXiv [cond-mat.soft] (2024). arxiv.org/abs/2410.21624

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Sam Wilken retweeted
20 Oct 2024
Condensate fans and attendees of #apsmarch! Consider sending your abstract (due Oct 25!) to: "Bio-inspired phase-separation" the @ApsDsoft and @ApsDbio focus session I am organizing with @SamWilken_ (session # 02.01.20 or, identically 04.01.39) Thanks!
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I will be giving the SLAAM Seminar next Monday morning October 7 (10am Pacific time/1pm Eastern) on Zoom. Please attend if you're interested in biomolecular phase separation, transcriptional control and hyperuniformity! More details: sites.google.com/view/slaams…
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Sam Wilken retweeted
6 May 2024
Happy to share our just-published review article on liquids (condensates) formed from nucleic acids. We tried to be pretty comprehensive, yet during the publication process ~6 more papers in the area appeared...ah well. see here, hope you like it: iopscience.iop.org/article/1…

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Sam Wilken retweeted
1 Mar 2024
March meeting attendees: Check out session K35, “Bio-inspired phase separation”, Tuesday 3-6pm, with great talks on various condensate and compartmentalized systems, including invited talks from Will Jacobs (Princeton) and Sam Wilken (UCSB) Details attached; link follows
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Sam Wilken retweeted
2 Oct 2023
Attendees of #apsmarch, I again ask you to consider sending your abstract (due Oct 20!) to: "Bio-inspired phase-separation" the @ApsDsoft focus session I am organizing with @SamWilken_ See link below for details of this, and all DSoft sessions: march.aps.org/attendees-pres…

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A cogent summary of our recent PRX publication. I'm particularly excited about the potential implications of the general mechanism, implying that hyperuniform structures may exist in phase-separating systems in far ranging fields from ecology, astronomy and image processing.
8 Aug 2023
Friends, a thread to advertise our recent paper in @PhysRevX: @SamWilken_ and Aria Chaderjian showed that biomolecular phase separation can lead to _hyperuniform_ patterning of droplets, structures that are locally random but ‘ordered’ over long scales journals.aps.org/prx/abstrac…
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Sam Wilken retweeted
8 Aug 2023
Friends, a thread to advertise our recent paper in @PhysRevX: @SamWilken_ and Aria Chaderjian showed that biomolecular phase separation can lead to _hyperuniform_ patterning of droplets, structures that are locally random but ‘ordered’ over long scales journals.aps.org/prx/abstrac…
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