Michael Shelley - Flatiron Institute & NYU
Wednesday, July 1, 2026
Zoom opens: 10:30AM EDT
Seminar begins: 10:45AM EDT
Modeling chromatin as an active polymer melt
In this talk I'll discuss a line of work wherein chromatin in the nucleus is treated as a polymer upon which work is being done by active nuclear processes.
These models range from Zimm polymer models acted upon by stochastic force dipoles, to a passive chromatin polymer immersed in an active nucleoplasm, to a continuum model of intermixed and active hetero- and euchromatic phases. Each model teaches us something about how the nucleus organizes itself through processes such as compaction and transcription. If time allows I'll also talk about recent work on modeling nuclear envelope rupture and repair as a free-boundary problem.