Randal Halfmann, Ph.D., is an Associate Investigator at the Stowers Institute. Halfmann joined the Institute in 2015.

Born in a rural west Texas, Halfmann received his B.S. in genetics in 2004 from Texas A&M University on an agricultural scholarship earned during his participation in the Future Farmers of America (FFA). He earned a Ph.D. in biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2010 in the lab of renowned biologist Susan Lindquist, Ph.D. Rather than pursuing a postdoctoral position, Halfmann accepted an independent scientific position at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center before joining the Institute in 2015.

The Halfmann Lab investigates the physics governing protein folding, aggregation, and phase transitions that drive gene regulation, cell signaling, and ultimately aging. Specifically, the lab is interested in how energetically unfavorable conditions that govern phase transitions, or the energy required to overcome a disordered liquid protein solution into a solid, ordered protein assembly, arise and how they control intracellular protein activity in time and space. Halfmann and his team combine physics and cell biology to understand the how cells overcome energy barriers to form prions and amyloids.

The lab has and is continuing to develop novel technologies to study protein self-assembly in living cells at high spatial and temporal resolution. They hope to be able to answer scientific inquiries surrounding protein sequence governs development, cellular adaptation, memory, and aging.