Leonid Mirny

Leonid Mirny developed the loop extrusion model of chromatin organization through polymer physics simulations, proposing that cohesin and other SMC complexes act as molecular motors that actively extrude chromatin loops until halted by CTCF boundary elements in convergent orientation. His computational predictions of 3D genome organization from loop extrusion simulations match experimental Hi-C data with remarkable accuracy. He has applied polymer modeling to understand how cohesin mutations in cancer disrupt loop architecture and how structural variants create neo-loops that activate oncogenes. His theoretical framework provides the mechanistic foundation for understanding how 3D genome topology is disrupted in cancer.