The Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC), the flagship journal of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, recently collected the 46 most significant research papers published during the past century and beyond. Associate Professor of Chemistry Xiaojun Ren’s paper “Nuclear condensates of the Polycomb protein chromobox 2 (CBX2) assemble through phase separation,” was included in the collection. This paper was one of the first few reporting that liquid-liquid phase separation of proteins and DNA plays important roles in the regulation of gene activities, which is paradigm-shifting in our understanding of diseases and development. Ren’s lab has been funded by NIH R01, NIH R03, the American Cancer Society, and the Office of Research Services (ORS) and CLAS at the University of Colorado Denver.