Gloppy

In 2012 biophysicist Michael Rosen of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and his coworkers showed that various proteins and RNA molecules could phase-separate from a solution into dense liquid droplets, which then congealed into viscoelastic substances. They seem to span the range from gloppy liquids such as mucus to almost solidlike gels such as Jell-O. […] One common stressor is heat, which can cause folded proteins to “denature,” or unravel. Many cells make heat-shock proteins when they get uncomfortably warm, which can act as molecular chaperones that guide denatured proteins back to their folded state. That’s important not just so the proteins work properly but so unfolded proteins do not stick together in a gloppy mess.