Support is requested for a Keystone Symposia conference entitled Higher Order Chromatin Architecture in Time and Space, organized by Drs. Jennifer E. Phillips-Cremins, Job Dekker and Stavros Lomvardas. The conference will be held in Whistler, British Columbia from March 15-19, 2020. Mammalian genomes are folded in a hierarchy of compartments, topologically associating domains (TADs), subTADs, and looping interactions. As genome-wide chromatin architecture maps become widely available, the field is shifting focus from mapping to understanding the dynamics of such structures in development, the cell cycle, and on short time scales in single cells. A critical emerging goal will be to unravel the cause and effect relationship between genome folding and functions such as transcription, replication, recombination, and stability/maintenance. There is also a great need to evaluate the organizing principles governing chromatin topology across many biological conditions and genetic perturbations. Moreover, the role for 3D genome misfolding in the onset and progression of a wide range of human disease states remains an area of high interest across multiple disciplines and organ systems. The conference program includes workshops with topics on leading computational methods to identify biologically relevant patterns in Hi-C data, new genome mapping and imaging technologies, and new data resources available through the 4D Nucleome consortium. Finally, the program concludes with a session devoted to novel tools for imaging and engineering the 3D genome. This Keystone Symposia conference aims to highlight new frontiers across disciplines in tackling the dynamics and functional roles of the 3D genome in cellular functions across time and space in development and disease.
The study of genome architecture and function is now at a stage where progress can only be made by thorough integration of approaches from molecular biology, bioinformatics, physics, mathematics and computer science. By gathering scientists from these different fields together, new collaborations can form which will advance the field of genome biology. This conference also provides a critical venue for students and trainees to directly interact with the leading scientists in the field which contributes to training the next generation of highly interdisciplinary scientists.
