Biophysical Society Bulletin | May 2019

Thematic Meetings

Multiscale Modeling of Chromatin: Bridging Experiment with Theory Les Houches, France | March 31 – April 5, 2019

Marking the beginning of spring, a very productive and enjoyable BPS thematic meeting was held in the picturesque French Alps, Ecole des Physiques, in Les Houches, France, March 31-April 5, 2019. WithMont Blanc in the background reminding participants of the lofty meeting goals, the meeting brought together about seventy biologists, chemists, physicists, andmathematicians to discuss and launch collaborations and advance the field of chromatin structure, dynamics, function and applications through new conceptual approaches and perspectives. Notably, the meeting merged experimentalists and theoreticians/modelers in the pro- gram seamlessly, emphasizing the interplay between techniques and ideas, mirroring the vision of the late Sydney Brenner (*). In particular, the themes underscored the complex multiscale features and properties of chromatin, fromDNA to nuclear orga- nization and interactions, inspiring scientists to discuss the devel- opment of models and experimental strategies onmany spatial and temporal scales needed to address all relevant components of the chromatin folding problem and the epigenomic regula- tion of gene expression. Suchmultiscale approaches, combining experimental data andmodeling and informatics, are necessary to extract and identify structure/function relationships on various scales, from individual base pairs to whole genomes, and to pur- sue important applications inmedicine and genomics. The meeting program featured 23 invited talks,14 short form submitted abstracts, 21 poster pitch talks and nightly poster sessions. By scheduling formal talks in the morning and evening,

the afternoons were left for hiking, skiing, and self-organized discussions. While we enjoyed warm sunny spring weather for the first couple days, the third day brought a heavy winter snow storm, burying us in over a foot of snow and encouraging cozy indoor discussions. All meeting participants were housed in chalets on site and shared breakfast, lunch, and dinner in a rustic dining roomnear the conference building. The French cuisine prepared by a playful French chef included delicious French pastries and brew for breakfast and fine stews and salads for lunch and dinner; a selec- tion of French cheeses and wines accented the dining experience. For the Organizing Committee, which consisted of Thomas Bishop , Louisiana Tech University, United States; Lars Nordenskiöld , Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; Tamar Schlick , New York University, United States; and Andrzej Stasiak , University of Lausanne, Switzerland; the meeting goals were more than fulfilled. Participants inquired about having a special issue of Biophysical Journal and about bringing the community together again in two years. Very quickly, a special BJ issue de- voted to themes of the meeting has been arranged, and plans are underway for a future meeting, possibly in Trieste, Italy. Finally, there was enthusiastic discussion and plans to bring forth a proposal for establishing a newBPS subgroup onmultiscale genome organization. Stay tuned. (*) “... how somuch progress depends on the interplay of tech- niques, discoveries, and new ideas, probably in that order of de- creasing importance.”—Syndney Brenner (1927–2019), 1980.

May 2019

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