Biophysical Society Thematic Meeting| Les Houches 2019

Multiscale Modeling of Chromatin: Bridging Experiment with Theory

Friday Speaker Abstracts

TADS AND CHROMATIN SUPERCOILING Andrzej Stasiak University of Lausanne, Switzerland No Abstract

HOW DO DNA-BINDING PROTEINS INTERPRET AND MODIFY NUCLEOSOME DYNAMICS? Vlad Cojocaru ; 1 The Hubrecht Institute for Developmental Biology and Stem Cell Research, In Silico Biolmolecular Structure and Dynamics Group, Utrecht, The Netherlands I will present our recent efforts to explore how nucleosome dynamics modulate the binding of linker histones and transcription factors to nucleosomes. First, I will show how a combination of Brownian and molecular dynamics simulations revealed an ensemble of geometries for the complex between the nucleosome core particle and linker histones. Second, I will show our efforts towards revealing the structural basis for the binding of the pioneer transcription factor Oct4 to nucleosomes. Oct4 is a master regulator of stem cell pluripotency and is critical for cell fate transitions such as the induction of pluripotency in somatic cells. *The research presented was performed in collaboration with Mehmet Öztürk, Rebecca Wade, Jan Huertas, Caitlin MacCarthy, and Hans R. Schöler

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