The non-equilibrium genome - where Physics meets Biology

This workshop brought together an interdisciplinary group of researchers working on different
aspects of the biology and the biophysics of the genome, particularly chromatin structure
dynamics, tissue morphogenesis, epigenetics, ageing. The people attending the meeting had
different expertises, from experimental biology to theoretical and experimental (bio)physics.
The meeting touched important key aspects of how genomes function, move and evolve,
including: tissue mechanics, molecular biophysics and stochasticity in biological systems.
The meeting took place in an “in person” format with 52 participants from institutions across
Europe, Asia and the United States (16 from Germany and 36 from abroad). As a keynote and
colloquium speaker we invited Martin Howard from the John Inn’s Center in Norwich (UK) who
gave a talk about how memory is established in epigenetic systems. Further invited speakers
covered areas ranging from the nano-scale organisation of chromatin, its evolution in time,
perturbations of chromatin and associated theories to what controls cell fate decisions.
All remaining slots were reserved for early career researchers on the graduate student and
postdoc level. They gave shorter talks of 20 minutes length, which were followed by lively
discussions. In addition to these regular talks we had a poster session which was preceded by a
flash talk session with brief presentations of poster presenters.
A key insight from this workshop was the need for a close integration of different
dimensionalities of the genome. For instance, how the “one-dimensional” genomic distribution
of epigenetic marks is able to influence the spatio-temporal evolution of the conformation of
DNA and chromatin in “three-dimensional” space is, in general, not understood yet.
Another important aspect that emerged clearly during the meeting was how the integration
between biology and theoretical physics can be fruitful for both fields: for instance, using
minimal ingredients polymer physics models are able to recapitulate well notable features of
chromatin-chromatin interactions; similarly, stochastic models from statistical physics are now
used as powerful tools to detect or predict patterns in biological aging. This workshop has
eventually led to future collaborations between different disciplines, such as between Steffen
Rulands, Yuval Ebenstein and Maxmina Yun. Another collaboration that focuses on chromatin
organisation through the cell cycle is currently being developed between Srinjan Basu, and
Buddho Chakrabarti.