New Models of the Cell Nucleus: Crowding, Entropic Forces, Phase Separation, and Fractals

Ronald Hancock obtained a PhD in Microbiology at Cambridge, UK and was a postdoc at Harvard Medical School. He worked at the Swiss Cancer Institute and is now a professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and the Cancer Research Centre of Laval University in Québec, Canada. His research focuses on the structure of the cell nucleus and chromosomes, and he also teaches and collaborates on studies of DNA repair with scientists in the Biosystems Group of the Silesian University, Gliwice, Poland. He is Editor of two volumes on "The Nucleus" in the series "Methods in Molecular Biology" (Springer) and of a Chapter entitled "The crowded environment of the genome" in the book "Genome organization and function in the cell nucleus" (Wiley). He represents Canada on the International Committee of the International (William Bernhard) Workshop on the Cell Nucleus. Kwang Jeon received his Ph.D. in cell physiology at King’s College, University of London, UK, in 1964 and taught at SUNY Buffalo and University of Tennessee. His research was concerned with the biogenesis and function of cell components in two major areas: Integration of intracellular symbionts into host cells leading to the acquisition of new cell components and cell variation; Membrane-protein recycling during endo- and exocytosis.

• The Nuclear PhysiqueThoru PedersonThe Crowded NucleusRonald HancockCrowding in Polymer-Nanoparticle MixturesAlan R. DentonCrowding-Induced Formation and Structural Alteration of Nuclear Compartments: Insights from Computer SimulationsEun Jin Cho, Igal Szleifer and Jun Soo KimPhase Separation as a Possible Means of Nuclear CompartmentalizationWilliam M. Aumiller, Jr, Bradley W. Davis and Christine D. KeatingFormation of Multi-Protein Assemblies in the Nucleus: The Spindle Assembly Checkpoint (SAC)Victor M. Bolanos-GarciaCharacteristic Behavior of Crowding Macromolecules Confined in Cell-Sized DropletsMiho Yanagisawa, Takahiro Sakaue and Kenichi YoshikawaNon-Canonical Structures and their Thermodynamics of DNA and RNA Under Molecular Crowding: Beyond the Watson-Crick Double HelixNaoki SugimotoComputational Models of Large-Scale Genome ArchitectureAngelo Rosa and Christophe ZimmerHow Chromatin Looping and Nuclear Envelope Attachment Affect Genome Organization in Eukaryotic Cell NucleiHansjoerg Jerabek and Dieter W. HeermannCrowding, Diffusion, and Biochemical ReactionsMatthias WeissImportance of Crowding in Signaling, Genetic, and Metabolic NetworksPieter Rein ten Wolde and Andrew MuglerRelevance and Limitations of Crowding, Fractal, and Polymer Models to Describe Nuclear ArchitectureSébastien Huet, Christophe Lavelle, Hubert Ranchon, Pascal Carrivain, Jean-Marc Victor and Aurélien Bancaud