NEWS

Dr. Thomas C. Bishop, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Physics, and Nanosystems Engineering at Lousiana Tech University, and Dr. Tamar Schlick, Professor of Chemistry, Mathematics and Computer Science at New York University, have co-founded the Multiscale Genome Organization (MGO) Subgroup of the international Biophysical Society, which will begin hosting bimonthly webinars on Wednesday, April 28.

The first speakers in the series will be Professor Karolin Luger of the University of Colorado Boulder and Vladimir Teif, PhD of the Univesity of Essex. Luger will discuss the remodeling and assembly of nucleosomes, the fundamental structural unit of the genome, and Teif will discuss the DNA sequence-dependent organization of nano-domains into heterochromatin. More than 100 participants from industry, government, and academia have already registered to attend the first webinar. The webinars are open to anyone interested in the fundamental structure and function of the genome.

Formation of the MGO subgroup was proposed during a meeting on Multiscale Modeling of Chromatin: Briding Experiment and Theory held at Les Houches in the French Alps in 2019. The group formally convened at the 65th annual meeting of the Biophysical Society in February 2021. MGO’s focus is genome organization across spatial and temporal scales ranging from individual nucleic acids to whole chromosomes. The subgroup specifically encourages interactions between biologists, chemists, informaticists, mathematicians, and physicists seeking to integrate theoretical, computational, and experimental studies of genetic and epigenetic processes.

“Sequencing an individual’s entire genome costs about $1,000,” Bishop said. “Targeted sequencing is considerably cheaper. We have mastered the ability to read, write, and copy ‘the blueprints of life,’ but we still have much to learn about relationships between the blueprints and the structures and functions they represent. This group seeks to fill that knowledge gap.”