Objects of this project range from nano-scale DNA/nucleosome structures to organisms (Figure 1). Regulators of genome modality would include
nucleoplasmic/cytoplasmic environments, physical properties of proteins, and physicochemical reactions such as liquid-liquid phase separation, as well as
physical properties of DNA. How do they regulate genome modality in each scale and define chromosome- or chromatin-dynamics, and how does dysfunction of the factors result in disorganization of cellular functions and causes diseases? We will address these questions from different approaches including theoretical physics, measurements of biophysical properties, reconstitutions, and genomics as well.
In the framework, there are 3 major categories as follows. A01: Physics of genome modality, where we uncover nano-scale genome structure and properties, and also build multi-scale theoretical model of the genome. A02: Meso-scale genome modality, where we focus on meso-scale structure including nucleosome, DNA loops, and chromatin fibers/domains, and figure out how these structures are formed. A03: Disorders of genome modality, where we address the questions how dysfunction of genome modality-regulating factors causes diseases.
