Title: Nuclear chromodynamics: non-equilibrium phase transition in the nucleus of a living cell

Abstract: Nucleus of a living cell houses a cell genome – a polymer called chromatin, which is a functional form of DNA.  It is very long, e.g., 2 meters long for every human cell.  Nucleus is also an arena of incessant energy-driven activity.  Experiments show that chromatin undergoes large scale motions sustained over long times of order seconds.  In the talk, after reviewing the phenomenology, I will show how these flows may arise due to a phase transition in which chromatin-driving motors, such as RNA polymerase, form a polar (“ferromagnetic”) order controlled by hydrodynamic interactions.  The talk is based on the joint work with I.Eshghi and A.Zidovska.