Enrico Carlon

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

Raymond Goldstein | KU Leuven eredoctores 2026 YouTube video by KU Leuven

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

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…

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...

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.

In this project, we will investigate chromosome architecture by integrating theoretical modelling, numerical simulations, and the analysis of experimental data.

An exciting journey ahead — I look forward to our collaboration.

#statistical_physics #polymers #chromatin #MD_simulations

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

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...

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

MeChaNiSM Mechanical Characterization of Nucleic acids using Single Molecule techniques

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/...

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...

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...

📢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...

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...

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

Palazzo Franchetti. Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti

Enjoying this workshop on the Statistical Mechanics of polymers in Venice these days...
Great program and organization!

userswww.pd.infn.it/~orlandin/Ve...

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...

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

Collaboration with Midas Segers @pol-kuleuven.bsky.social, Enrico Skoruppa and Helmut Schiessel @poldresden.bsky.social (4/4)

In these experiments a single DNA molecule is attached to a solid surface and to a bead which is pulled and rotated by magnetic fields. Our paper develops a theory of multiplectonemes formation in stretched and twisted DNA, which is in excellent agreement with simulations. (3/4)

Plectonemes are supercoiled structures that form when DNA is overwound (or underwound). They help DNA fit in tight space and play an important role in gene regulation. The figure illustrates plectonemes forming in DNA under torque and tension as in magnetic tweezers in vitro experiments. (2/4)

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...

MeChaNiSM Mechanical Characterization of Nucleic acids using Single Molecule techniques

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/...

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!

schematic model for obstacle navigation by SMC rings by extrusion through the SMC lumen and by hinge bypassing

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.