Physics Colloquium, May 6, 2008
Genomic Phase Transitions Anirvan Sengupta

Rutgers University

Abstract: Stem cells have been at the center of much scientific excitement and controversy for the last decade. How exactly pluripotent embryonic stem cells specialize to particular cell fates, like the ones that make the skin or neurons or blood cells, remains a mystery. At the heart of this phenomenon is the ability of the cellular machinery to generate "epigenetic" states, namely the possibility of having many different kinds of cells, despite having the exact same genetic material. Some of the " epigenetic" effects involve modification of the local state of genetic material that is remembered through many cell divisions. The origing of such cellular memory is only partially understood. We will study this question in a much simpler system: baker's yeast. As I will discuss, understanding multiple states of the cell has much in common with the physics of phase transitions. Armed with the approach borrowed from physics, one can make several qualitative predictions that could be experimentally verified.

Dr. Sengupta's Web Site

4:00 p.m., Physics Research Building (PRB), Room 1080

Reception at 3:45 p.m., Atrium, PRB