Benjamin Sabari, Ph.D. Titles and Appointments Assistant Professor Schools Medical School | Graduate School Departments Cecil H. and Ida Green Center for Reproductive Biology Sciences | Molecular Biology | Obstetrics and Gynecology Graduate Programs Genetics, Development and Disease Biography Ben Sabari is an Assistant Professor in the Cecil H. and Ida Green Center for Reproductive Biology Sciences and Department of Molecular Biology. Dr. Sabari received his BS in Molecular Genetics at University of Rochester in 2010. He completed his PhD with David Allis in the Laboratory of Chromatin Biology and Epigenetics at The Rockefeller University in 2016. As a graduate student Dr. Sabari studied the regulatory role of histone post-translation modifications in transcription and gene activation. Dr. Sabari was a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Richard Young at the Whitehead Institute, where he investigated the role of phase-separated condensates in regulating gene activation. In 2020, Dr. Sabari joined the faculty at UT Southwestern. The primary goal of the Sabari Lab is to understand how the machinery required for gene activation is organized within the nucleus in healthy and diseased cell states. The process of gene activation requires hundreds of unique proteins and RNAs that must engage with specific DNA elements to position RNA Polymerase at a gene for transcription. We study the role of dynamic compartments called biomolecular condensates in organizing the transcriptional machinery. We investigate how nuclear condensates form at specific genomic loci, how they function to compartmentalize biochemistry, and how they are dynamically regulated. The lab focuses on the roles of protein disorder, regulatory DNA element clustering, and active processes in the formation and function of nuclear condensates. We investigate these processes in various biological contexts including adipogenesis, stem cell differentiation, and cancer. We employ an array of tools including live cell microscopy, in vitro biochemistry, proteomics, and epigenomics. The Sabari Lab website can be found at: https://www.sabarilab.com Research Interest Biomolecular condensates Chromatin Gene Regulation Nuclear Organization Transcription Publications Featured Publications RNA polymerase II partitioning is a shared feature of diverse oncofusion condensates. Lyons H, Pradhan P, Prakasam G, Vashishtha S, Li X, Eppert M, Fornero C, Tcheuyap VT, McGlynn K, Yu Z, Raju DR, Koduru PR, Xing C, Kapur P, Brugarolas J, Sabari BR, Cell 2025 Apr Transcription regulation by biomolecular condensates. Pei G, Lyons H, Li P, Sabari BR, Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 2024 Nov Functional partitioning of transcriptional regulators by patterned charge blocks. Lyons H, Veettil RT, Pradhan P, Fornero C, De La Cruz N, Ito K, Eppert M, Roeder RG, Sabari BR, Cell 2023 Jan 186 2 327-345.e28 Density transitions in the regulation of transcription. Navalkar A, Eppert M, Sabari BR, Mittag T, Mol Cell 2026 Feb 86 4 567-584 Visions of the future of molecular cell biology. Abu-Remaileh M, Chan CJ, Chen L, Demirer GS, Fiszbein A, Jug F, Lechuga-Vieco AV, Luisier R, Pagan J, Sabari BR, Shao S, Sun L, Zylicz JJ, Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 2025 Oct 26 10 735-740 Sequence-based prediction of condensate composition reveals that specificity can emerge from multivalent interactions among disordered regions. Wessén J, De La Cruz N, Lyons H, Chan HS, Sabari BR, Commun Chem 2025 Oct 8 1 304 The phenylalanine-and-glycine repeats of NUP98 oncofusions form condensates that selectively partition transcriptional coactivators. Ahn JH, Guo Y, Lyons H, Mackintosh SG, Lau BK, Edmondson RD, Byrum SD, Storey AJ, Tackett AJ, Cai L, Sabari BR, Wang GG, Mol Cell 2025 Feb 85 4 708-725.e9 Disordered Regions of Condensate-promoting Proteins Have Distinct Molecular Signatures Associated with Cellular Function. Vashishtha S, Sabari BR, J Mol Biol 2025 Jan 437 5 168953 Functional specificity in biomolecular condensates revealed by genetic complementation. Sabari BR, Hyman AA, Hnisz D, Nat Rev Genet 2024 Oct Disorder-mediated interactions target proteins to specific condensates. De La Cruz N, Pradhan P, Veettil RT, Conti BA, Oppikofer M, Sabari BR, Mol Cell 2024 Sep 84 18 3497-3512.e9 Results 1-10 of 28 1 2 3 Next Last Honors & Awards Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Prize (2026) The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research ASPIRE Award (2026) Rising Star in Cellular and Molecular BiophysicsGulf Coast Consortium (2025) Kavli Frontiers in Science Fellow (2022) Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas First Time Faculty Recruitment Award (2020) Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow (2017-2020) National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow (2011-2014)
