Many thanks to Raymond Goldstein for a truly engaging two-day visit at @kuleuvenuniversity.bsky.social during which he presented a faculty colloquium on “Fluid Dynamics and the Evolution of Biological Complexity” and a seminar on “Decision-making without a brain.” @pol-kuleuven.bsky.social

The KULeuven Department of Physics and Astronomy is recruiting a new faculty member as Research Professor in Experimental Biophysics. The candidate is expected to develop and apply innovative experimental techniques to study the structure and behavior of living systems from a physics perspective.

🏅 2026 IUPAP Medal for the Physics of Life The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP), through its Commission on Biological Physics (C6), is pleased to announce that Dr. Uri Alon is the recipient of the 2026 IUPAP Medal for the Physics of Life iupap.org/who-we-are/i...

If you’re in the London area, don’t miss this seminar at Kings College Tomorrow, Monday 9 Feb. at 12:30 "DNA topology: from DNA supercoiling to the organization of interphase chromosomes" by Midas Segers presenting recent work from our KU Leuven group mathsbiscuit.uk/dhd/maths.ev... #chromatin

Our new preprint on SMCHD1! We’ve shown SMCHD1’s ATPase activity is critical for function in vivo, and excitingly a new DNA binding domain neighbouring the ATPase domain activates the enzymatic function, which is important for normal chromatin binding. urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...

💡 We are hiring! #PhD position in #Nanotechnology exploring DNA origami nanoactuators for molecular diagnostics 🧬 Apply here 👉 tinyurl.com/yc3a2cs7

KU Leuven awards an honorary doctorate to physicist Raymond E. Goldstein in recognition of his groundbreaking contributions to the Physics of Life, a field that uncovers the fundamental physical principles shaping living systems youtu.be/qQXnUPU2iAU

Raymond Goldstein | KU Leuven eredoctores 2026

YouTube video by KU Leuven

youtu.be

The 2024 Physics Nobel Prize is often portrayed as a "prize for AI". In this article I explain the connection with Physics. It is a translation of an article appeared in dutch in www.tijdschriftkarakter.be - @karakterasl.bsky.social ecarlon.wordpress.com/2025/12/09/p...

Physics meets Computer Science: The 2024 Physics Nobel Prize

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics is often portrayed in the media as a recognition of artificial intelligence, making the link with Physics unclear to many. In this article I try to explain the conne…

ecarlon.wordpress.com

If you happen to be in Seoul tomorrow Dec. 3 don't miss this seminar at the Korea Institute for Advanced Study (KIAS) "Chromatin structure from high resolution microscopy: Scaling laws and microphase separation" by Midas Segers (KU Leuven) www.kias.re.kr/kias/activit...

🎉Our group has been awarded a prestigious #FIS grant! #RNAScale - Exploring RNA Dynamics across Scales: From Base Pairs to Viral Genomes 👉 www.bussilab.org/fis3 We will soon open postdoctoral positions across several components of the project! An expression-of-interest form is already online.

Congratulations to Giandomenico Vanore on being awarded a PhD Fellowship by @fwovlaanderen.bsky.social He will conduct his doctoral research under my supervision on the project “Understanding the structure of interphase chromosomes.” #statistical_physics #polymers #chromatin #MD_simulations

Working on biosensors? Don’t miss this MDPI webinar introducing thermal biosensing via the heat-transfer method (HTM) — a simple yet powerful way to detect biomolecular interactions and monitor cells. Pioneers of HTM will share their insights! #Biosensors #HTM More info: sciforum.net/event/Sensor...

🧬 Seminar Alert! Join us next Friday 17 Oct. for “Mechanics, Dynamics and Shape in Oocytes” by Dr. Bart Vos — a deep dive into how physical forces and cell mechanics shape early development. Discover the emerging field of mechanobiology, where physics meets life.

Interest in pursuing a PhD/postdoctoral position in experimental Condensed Matter Physics with applications to biological systems? Don’t miss this opportunity from the "Small Biosystems Lab" felixritortlab.com UBarcelona which combines statistical physics with single-molecule experimental techniques

New preprint! With Takahiro Sakaue we studied an active polymer dynamics focusing on the mean-square displacement of a monomer. We show that the MSD can be described by a simple compounding formula linking an isolated monomer MSD with tension propagation along the chain - arxiv.org/abs/2510.07949

Compounding formula approach to chromatin and active polymer dynamics

Active polymers are ubiquitous in nature, and often kicked by persistent noises that break detailed balance. In order to capture the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of such active polymers, we propose a s...

arxiv.org

Traveling back after an exciting three days meeting of the MeChaNiSM Doctoral Network @mechanism-network.bsky.social - Thanks to all students, PIs and supporting staff for these intense days of scientific discussions about our projects on DNA/RNA mechanics. www.chalmers.se/en/projects/...

MeChaNiSM

Mechanical Characterization of Nucleic acids using Single Molecule techniques

chalmers.se

New preprint out! We investigate DNA kinks using biased all-atom MD simulations, in collaboration with Arianna Fassino and Aderik Voorspoels @aderikvoorspoels.bsky.social, as part of the EU-funded Doctoral Network MeChaNiSM @mechanism-network.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Inferring DNA kinkability from biased MD simulations

In several biological processes, such as looping, supercoiling and DNA-protein interactions, DNA is subject to very strong deformations. While coarse-grained models often approximate DNA as a smoothly...

biorxiv.org

📢Seminar 11 September at 12h, Faculty of Science, Seminar Room Module 5 @cienciasuam.bsky.social @uam.es Enrico Carlon @ecarlon.bsky.social from KU Leuven will talk about DNA mechanics beyond the twistable wormlike chain. See you there! ifimac.uam.es/ifimac-semin...

Applicants wanted 5: Open position for PhD Student Studying Vitro Single-molecule Transport Across Peroxisome Mimics careers.tudelft.nl/job/Delft-Ph...

Interesting paper by Tony Lemos and Harold Kim. DNA minicircles adopt a specific inside-out orientation. Previously predicted, now this effect has been observed in atomic force microscopy (AFM) experiments! arxiv.org/abs/2508.15091

Visualizing Poloidal Orientation in DNA Minicircles

A short (<150 bp) double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) molecule ligated end-to-end forms a DNA minicircle. Due to sequence-dependent, nonuniform bending energetics, such a minicircle is predicted to adopt a ce...

arxiv.org

Enjoying this workshop on the Statistical Mechanics of polymers in Venice these days... Great program and organization! userswww.pd.infn.it/~orlandin/Ve...

New preprint! Collaboration with Andrea Bonato, Sergey Kitaev, Davide Marenduzzo and Enzo Orlandini arxiv.org/abs/2507.00520

Topological weight and structural diversity of polydisperse chromatin loop networks

Current biophysical models for transcriptionally active chromatin view this as a polymer with sticky sites, mimicking transcription units such as promoters and enhancers which interact via the binding...

arxiv.org

Very happy that our latest publication "Statistical mechanics of multiplectoneme phases in DNA" doi.org/10.1103/Phys... was selected as Editors' Suggestion. These suggestions list "a small number of papers that the editors and referees find of particular interest, importance, or clarity". (1/4)

A 3 year ERC-funded post-doc position in the Broedersz group of @vuamsterdam.bsky.social. Topic: Statistical physics of Chromosomes workingat.vu.nl/vacancies/po...

Exciting news! PoL@KUL invites you to the inaugural lecture of the International Francqui Professor 2024-25, Prof. Davide Marenduzzo (U. of Edinburgh) on Tuesday, April 29, 2025 in Leuven: Biophysical principles of chromosome organisation Info and registration: fys.kuleuven.be/english/coll...

Welcome to Arianna Fassino who has recently joined our group to start a PhD project on simulations of Nucleic Acids Mechanics. The project is part of a EU-Marie Skłodowska Curie Doctoral Network “MeChaNiSM” Mechanical Characterization of Nucleic acids - www.chalmers.se/en/projects/...

MeChaNiSM

Mechanical Characterization of Nucleic acids using Single Molecule techniques

chalmers.se

Apply now for our international Master of Science in Physics of Life @biozentrum.unibas.ch @unibasel.ch! Scholarships available. More information: www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/education/de... #Master #Students #Research #Physics #Mathematics #ComputerScience #Engineering #Basel #Switzerland

Very pleased to share our new story on SMC complexes, a great team effort from @roisnehamelinf.bsky.social, @taschner.bsky.social in the GruberLab and James of @dnatopologylab.bsky.social We find that SMC hinge domains are ssDNA gates to facilitate obstacle bypass during DNA loop extrusion!

Stephan Gruber@gruberlab.bsky.social · last yr.

Yet another preprint from the lab—this one is personal. During my PhD, I ended up working on the cohesin SMC hinge, showing its role in sister chromatid cohesion and proposing it as a DNA entry gate in the SMC ring. But the details have remained mysterious and controversial.

Now, 20+ years later, our lab revisits the hinge using the anti-plasmid SMC complex Wadjet. We show that the SMC hinge is a DNA gate—an obstacle bypass gate selective for ssDNA, used to navigate chromosomal barriers during DNA loop extrusion.

Yet another preprint from the lab—this one is personal. During my PhD, I ended up working on the cohesin SMC hinge, showing its role in sister chromatid cohesion and proposing it as a DNA entry gate in the SMC ring. But the details have remained mysterious and controversial.