Andrea Maria Chiariello, PhD - "Physical principles of genome re-structuring in healthy and pathogenic genomes"

Andrea Maria Chiariello, PhD
Assistant Professor in Theoretical Physics,
Mathematical Methods and Applications
Physics Department
University of Napoli Federico II

Short CV

Abstract
Within the cell nucleus of eukaryotic organisms, chromosomes are organized in a complex, non-random three-dimensional (3D) spatial structure, which is intimately linked to vital functional purposes. Indeed, a correct folding allows an efficient communication between genes and their distal regulatory elements while, if altered, can cause severe diseases. Here I will discuss how Physics theories, combined with Molecular Dynamics simulations and data analytics, represent a powerful tool to quantitatively investigate the complexity of 3D organization of real genomes. Simple physical processes, such as Phase-Separation of molecular aggregates, polymer phase transitions and membrane adsorption, allow to interpret several experimental observations, e.g. tissue-specific DNA structure and effects of genetic editing. Also, alteration of these physical processes can be linked to pathogenic contexts and can be used to study, e.g., aberrant looping or the effect of viral infections from SARS-CoV-2 or avian Influenza A H5N1 virus.