title: Life at the mesoscale: the self-organised cytoplasm and nucleoplasm.
abstract: The cell contains highly dynamic structures exploiting physical principles of self-organisation at the mesoscale (100 nm to 10 μm). Examples include non-membrane bound cytoplasmic bodies, cytoskeleton-based motor networks and multi-scale chromatin organisation. The challenges of mesoscale self-organisation were discussed at a CECAM workshop in July 2014. Biologists need approaches to observe highly dynamic, low affinity, low specificity associations and to perturb single structures, while biological physicists and biomathematicians need to work closely with biologists to build and validate quantitative models. A table of terminology is included to facilitate multidisciplinary efforts to reveal the richness and diversity of mesoscale cell biology.
authors: Department of Physics, University of Surrey, GU2 7XH Guildford, Surrey UK.
authors: Richard P
authors: RP
authors: Sear
authors: Departament de Fisica Fonamental, University of Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain.
authors: Ignacio
authors: I
authors: Pagonabarraga
authors: Centre for Chromosome Biology, School of Life Sciences, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland.
authors: Andrew
authors: A
authors: Flaus
keywords: Cell biology; Chromatin; Cytoplasmic bodies; Cytoskeleton; Mesoscale; Self-organisation; Workshop report