Awardee Announced!

The first 10,000 Euro grant for an EpiGeneSys small-scale collaborative project has been awarded. The call addressed PhD students and postdoctoral researchers and asked for a 3-page proposal bringing together epigenetics and systems biology. Go to the EpiGeneSys website to read an interview with the successful applicant!

Upcoming Events

The first EpiGeneSys Course on Systems Biology, organized by Amos Tanay and Eran Segal, will take place at the Weizmann Institute (Rehovot, Israel), from June 3-6th of 2012. The course will include introductory lectures by leading experts in the field and activities in small groups, ending with a one day research symposium discussing advances on the interface between epigenetics and systems biology.

The first Epigenesys student/postdoc training workshop of 2012, "Labcoats and Briefcases, Epigenetics Gets Down to Business" will be held in Strasbourg, France at the IGBMC on June 28-29th. The Training Advisory Board has done a terrific job putting together an impressive list of speakers, including experts from Transgene and Pfizer and EMBO Reports. In addition to great science talks, participants will learn about taking an idea from academia to industry, utilizing various writing styles for different audiences and preparing for careers outside of academia.

8th Annual Epigenetics Course held at Institut Curie in March of 2012

32 Masters and PhD students from all over Europe, many of them from EpiGeneSys labs, came to Paris to take part in the 8th edition of the popular course at the Institute Curie.  Geneviève Almouzni, coordinator of EpiGeneSys and one of the founders of the course, stresses its open approach: “The role of a course like this is to reach out to other students and labs outside the network that are interested in similar topics, which gives an extra boost to the area of epigenetics and systems biology that we would like to develop.”

For a whole week the participants attended scientific lectures, both didactic and presenting the latest research, listened to talks on topics such as the peer review process or how to optimise the chances for publication, presented and discussed papers, learnt about careers outside the research establishment and tried their hand at transporting principles of epigenetics via the vehicle of art.  

Peter Hill, a PhD student in the lab of Petra Hajkova at the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre in London, favoured the versatility of the programme, saying,  “My motivation for participation in the epigenetics course was to gain a better breadth and depth of understanding epigenetics. The course provided me with the opportunity to study many different aspects in quite a lot of detail and give me new ideas”.  Raoul Sharma, PhD student in the lab of Peter Meister at the University of Bern attached great importance to another aspect of the course, “The best part was to interact with your colleagues”.  

Not only the students, but also the lecturers benefited from the experience. “My motivation to come to the training course at the Institut Curie is to help facilitate the training of the next generation of scientists. Epigenetics is such a fast moving field that we have to invest in such activities. It was a pleasure to teach the students, who have been absolutely fantastic, ” quipped Stephan Beck.

Andreas Ladurner commented on teaching at the course, “My experience working here at the course is probably one of my highlights of the academic year. Being with students, presenting my own work, presenting other people’s data, and then answering their questions and seeing all of the enthusiasm in their eyes, as well as being able to discuss science, how experiments are done and what else needs to be done is really really exciting.”