Reverse engineering 3D chromosome models for individual cells

Genome analysis can provide information on genes and their location on a strand of DNA, but such analysis reveals little about their spatial location in relation to one another within chromosomes -- the highly complex, three-dimensional structures that hold genetic information.

Chromosomes resemble a fuzzy "X" in microscopy images and can carry thousands of genes. They are formed when DNA winds around proteins -- called histones -- which are further folded into complexes called chromatin, which make up individual chromosomes.

Knowing which genes are located in spatial proximity within the chromatin is important because genes that are near each other generally work together.

Now, researchers at the END