Sara M. Vaiana has a research background in soft matter physics applied to biological systems. Her research is driven by an interest in the fundamental physics of proteins and polymers, which may explain their behavior in biological systems. Her lab combines advanced laser spectroscopy techniques (time resolved pump-probe techniques, developed and built in her lab, and multi-angle static and dynamic light scattering), with other protein structure and dynamics characterization techniques. Her group works in close collaboration with theoretical and computational physics, physical chemistry, biochemistry, and molecular biology groups. She applies concepts from phase transitions and polymer physics to understand structure, dynamics and self-assembly of proteins. Her research is focused on two main areas of interest: i) investigating the conformational ensembles and the dynamics of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs), in relation to their biological function ii) understanding the mechanism and quantifying the driving forces which lead to liquid-liquid phase separation and amyloid protein aggregation and disease.
