Summer School and Workshops on Genome Architecture and Function

基因组结构和功能暑期学校和研讨会

• 批准号: 2015620
• 负责人: Arup Chakraborty
• 金额: $ 26.79万
• 依托单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-06-15 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2015620&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Summer; Workshops; Genome; Architecture; Function

Two workshops and a school will be hosted by MIT in Boston on the topic of "Genome structure and function". In the Summer of 2020 an online workshop will be held and in March, 2021 the school and workshop will be held. In the online workshop students, postdocs and researchers will give technical talks and discuss their current research. During the school and workshop leading experts will teach and discuss how cells acquire their identity. What physical mechanisms are responsible for cells with the same genome in an organism to perform different function, e.g. neuron vs liver cell? The School will be focused on a set of tutorials taught by leading experts in the field on the cutting edge of the subjects pertinent to the research area noted above, and will last two days. During the Workshop at least 20 leading experts from the US and Europe will present talks based on their current research. The list of invited speakers is comprised of both physicists and biologists. Ample time will be provided for discussions. Aapproximately 75 trainees will be students in the School, and the workshop will be attended by approximately 150 individuals from academe and industry. The Summer School and Workshop will serve to help educate the next generation of scientists (physicists and biologists) about an exciting and important topic that requires work at the convergence of physics and biology. The students in the Summer School will be drawn from both Europe and the US, and potentially other countries. Moreover, many participants in the Workshop will be trainees from the laboratories of the many universities in the Boston area, thus broadening the educational outreach of the proposed meeting further. It is important to note that, while the meeting will be focused on fundamental science, mis-regulation of nuclear processes and genome architecture impact many diseased states (e.g., cancer, autoimmunity, and ageing-related diseases). Thus, there will be a number of participants in the workshop who are scientists working in the vibrant biotechnology companies in the Boston area, which will further enhance the broader impacts of the proposed Summer School and Workshop on "Genome architecture and function". Special attention will be paid to attracting students and participants from underrepresented groups.The identity and state of a cell determines its phenotype, and thus how it interacts with other cells to regulate the functions of complex organisms. A cell's identity is determined by which regions of its genome are transcribed into proteins, and which regions are not. Cellular identity is a collective emergent property that is determined by an interplay between the structure (or architecture) of the genome inside the nucleus and nuclear functions (e.g., transcription, DNA repair), both of which are determined by cooperative interactions between many components. Thus, understanding the basic science underlying how cell identity is determined requires a convergence of approaches from physics and biology. In recent years, there has been great interest in work at this crossroad of disciplines, with the goal of developing fundamental new principles pertinent to processes that are key to understanding how complex organisms function. New experimental tools (e.g., chromatin capture methods) and theory and computer simulations (rooted in statistical physics) have begun to reveal the determinants of chromatin structure. Similarly, recent work using synergistic theory, computation, and high and super-resolution microscopy has suggested that the transcription of genes key to maintaining cell identity is regulated by the formation of active phase-separated transcriptional condensates. It is an opportune time to bring together leading physicists and biologists to discuss the most recent findings, educate trainees on these topics, and chart a path forward. The proposed Summer School and Workshop may become a landmark meeting for the field. The School and Workshops are supported by the Physics of Living Systems program in the Physics Division and the Molecular Biophysics and the Genetic Mechanisms clusters in the Molecular and Cellular Biosciences Division.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

麻省理工学院将在波士顿举办两个工作坊和一个学校，主题为“基因组结构和功能”。2020年夏天将举办一个在线研讨会，2021年3月将举办学校和研讨会。在在线研讨会中，学生、博士后和研究人员将进行技术演讲，并讨论他们目前的研究。在学校和研讨会期间，主要专家将讲授和讨论细胞如何获得其身份。生物体中具有相同基因组的细胞执行不同功能的物理机制是什么，例如神经元对肝细胞？该学院将专注于由该领域的顶尖专家讲授与上述研究领域相关的前沿课题的一套教程，为期两天。在研讨会期间，来自美国和欧洲的至少20位顶尖专家将在他们目前的研究基础上发表演讲。受邀演讲者名单上既有物理学家，也有生物学家。将提供充足的时间进行讨论。A大约75名学员将是该学院的学生，来自学术界和工业界的约150人将参加研讨会。暑期班和讲习班将有助于教育下一代科学家(物理学家和生物学家)，使他们了解一个激动人心的重要主题，需要在物理学和生物学的交汇点上下功夫。暑期学校的学生将来自欧洲和美国，可能还有其他国家。此外，讲习班的许多参与者将是来自波士顿地区许多大学实验室的受训人员，从而进一步扩大了拟议会议的教育范围。值得注意的是，虽然会议将集中讨论基础科学，但核过程和基因组结构的不当调节会影响许多疾病状态(例如癌症、自身免疫和与衰老相关的疾病)。因此，参加讲习班的一些人是在波士顿地区生机勃勃的生物技术公司工作的科学家，这将进一步加强拟议的暑期学校和讲习班对“基因组结构和功能”的更广泛影响。将特别注意吸引来自代表性不足群体的学生和参与者。细胞的身份和状态决定其表型，从而决定它如何与其他细胞相互作用以调节复杂生物体的功能。细胞的特性取决于其基因组的哪些区域被转录成蛋白质，哪些区域没有被转录成蛋白质。细胞同一性是由细胞核内基因组的结构(或结构)和核功能(如转录、DNA修复)之间的相互作用决定的一种集体紧急属性，这两者都由许多成分之间的协同作用决定。因此，理解细胞身份是如何确定的基础科学需要物理学和生物学方法的融合。近年来，人们对这一学科交叉路口的工作产生了极大的兴趣，目标是开发与过程相关的基本新原则，这些过程是理解复杂生物体功能的关键。新的实验工具(例如，染色质捕获方法)以及理论和计算机模拟(植根于统计物理)已经开始揭示染色质结构的决定因素。同样，最近使用协同理论、计算以及高和超分辨率显微镜的工作表明，维持细胞特性的关键基因的转录是由活性的相分离转录缩合物的形成来调节的。现在正是将领先的物理学家和生物学家聚集在一起讨论最新发现、就这些主题对受训者进行教育并规划前进道路的好时机。拟议的暑期学校和讲习班可能成为外地的一次里程碑式的会议。该学院和研讨会由物理部的生命系统物理学项目以及分子和细胞生物科学部的分子生物物理学和遗传机制簇支持。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。