How are chromosomes arranged in the cell nucleus? Is it possible that they communicate with one another by “touching” each other? To answer this question and to shed more light on the fundamental properties of the communication between different chromosomes, Philipp Maass from Friedrich Luft’s lab at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) and Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC), Berlin, and Anja Weise, University of Jena, have explored the interactions between chromosomes 12 and 17 in their latest project, published in the EMBO Journal.