Frontier Strategy Let’s talk

Royal Society Conference on Chromosome Dynamics

Convened 20 leading scientists across modelling & experimentation, seeding new collaborations in genome architecture.

Goal

  • Define the state of knowledge & challenges in chromatin dynamics
  • Bridge experimentalists & computational modellers
  • Seed future collaborations across domains

What we did

  • Invited 20 international leaders
  • Curated dialogue across modelling & experimental approaches
  • Hosted the conference at Chicheley Hall, a Royal Society venue

programme

particpants

Participants (L to R): Vivek Thacker1, Eileen Nugent1, Jonathan Baxter2, Peter Fraser3, Paul Wiggins4, Nicholas Kent5, Rohit Pappu6, Kazuhiro Maeshima7, Megan King8, Christian Haering9, Philipp Korber10, Martin Howard11, Steven Andrews12, Karen Lipkow3, Paul A. Bates13, Mario Nicodemi14, Kerstin Bystricky15, Leonie Ringrose16, Patrick Varga-Weisz3

Outcomes

  • Established the first dedicated forum on computational chromatin dynamics.
  • Connected researchers from previously separate communities.
  • Sparked ongoing collaborations (UK, US, Japan, EU).
  • Positioned the UK as a visible hub in this emerging field.

Why it mattered

Understanding chromatin dynamics is a frontier problem: megabase-scale DNA, 200+ proteins, and rapid biophysical change. Only by combining modelling with cutting-edge experiments can we approach a causal understanding of gene regulation.

This meeting catalyzed the community shift toward integrated models — laying groundwork for tools, collaborations, and future grants.

Rationale & Motivation

The structure of chromatin has been notoriously difficult to determine. Composed of megabases of DNA and more than 200 known different proteins, our understanding of the exact dimensions, composition, biophysics and dynamics have changed dramatically over the years. Now that we are able to determine the structure of whole genomes, and combine this information with the increasing wealth of genome-wide epigenetic and gene expression data, we are beginning to see how the 3D structure of the entire genome has implications for regulation of gene expression and cellular development. Similarily, we are beginning to see how genome structure is being shaped by cellular events. In essence, gene regulatory events are accompanied, or even brought about by, changes in genome architecture.
This meeting will bring together computational and experimental researchers at the forefront of the chromatin field, with the aim to understand where the current boundaries of our understanding exactly lie. Computational models of chromatin need to be able to incorporate the latest data and be informed of current experimental approaches. And experimentists are eager to understand to what degree precisely models can help their research, experimentally and conceptually. Bringing these two approaches together is currently not done in other meetings, which is our motivation to host this conference.
Being able to understand chromatin dynamics quantitatively will impact our understanding of gene regulation, cellular development and many disease phenotypes.

Contributing Institutions

  1. University of Cambridge, UK

  2. University of Sussex, UK

  3. Babraham Institute, UK

  4. University of Washington, Seattle, USA

  5. School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, UK

  6. Washington University in St. Louis, USA

  7. RIKEN National Institute of Genetics, Japan

  8. Yale University, USA

  9. EMBL Heidelberg, Germany

  10. LMU München, Germany

  11. John Innes Centre, UK

  12. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, USA

  13. Cancer Research UK London Research Institute, UK

  14. University of Naples “Federico II”, Italy

  15. University of Toulouse, France

  16. IMP Vienna, Austria