Written by Eleni Katsantoni, PhD, Investigator C in Basic Research Center, Biomedical Research Foundation, Academy of Athens, Greece

I would like to thank EMBL for offering me the opportunity to attend the ‘Chromatin and Epigenetics’ Conference in May 2025 under the role of the event reporter. I really enjoyed the event and had a great time! The meeting brought together many pioneers and younger researchers at the first stages of their career in the fields of chromatin, epigenetics, and transcriptional regulation. The oral and poster presentations were very interesting and of high quality. In addition, the conference offered multiple opportunities for socialising and networking. My duties as an event reporter focused on posting highlights of the conference on my social media accounts. This contributed to the dissemination of conference-related information and the research direction/projects of my lab in my networks, further providing me with opportunities for networking. During this meeting, I attended all the lectures and visited numerous posters. The conference lasted four days and the presentations were grouped into six sessions.

Day one included a session on chromatin accessibility and DNA methylation. Highlights included mechanisms of gene expression during development, single-cell atlas of 3D genome organisation and DNA methylation, role of components of maize RNA-directed DNA methylation pathway, DNA methylation interplays with RNA m6A factors, and a domain of Suv39h2 that protects the RNA-nucleosome scaffold at mouse heterochromatin. Additional highlights included cancer genes, controlling of CpG islands, and dissecting the mechanisms of retrotransposons. The day finished with a poster sneak peek, dinner in the EMBL canteen, and a pub quiz that provided all participants with a relaxing time for socialising and networking.

Day two included a session on epigenetics and development with presentations on the genomic basis of wing development in bats, the passage of epigenetic information in germ line, DNA replication and cell fate transitions, epigenetic mechanisms of pluripotency, transcription circuitry at the beginning of the life, transcription factors/chromatin remodelers in eye development/retinal diseases, and poising and connectivity of enhancers from naïve to primed pluripotency.

This session was followed by a lunch and a very interesting ‘Meet the editors’ session, where I had the opportunity to discuss in person our projects with editors from EMBO J, FEBS Letters, Nature Cell Biology, and Molecular Cell. These discussions were a real pleasure for me. Furthermore, during the coffee breaks, participants could meet with representatives from private companies to discuss technical solutions on various aspects of chromatin and epigenetics analysis. I had the opportunity to discuss new developments on Hi-C with a representative of Dovetail Genomics.

On the same day, another session was focused on transcription control and disease states with interesting presentations on transcription elongation regulatory mechanisms/epigenetics for cancer therapeutics, polycomb complexes, CTCF binding and chromatin organisation, epigenetic regulation by histone acetylation, and computational modelling of genomes. The ‘Meet the speaker’ sessions during the coffee breaks were also very interesting, as they gave the opportunity to various younger researchers to discuss with the speakers questions and projects. The day finished with the first poster session. The afternoon was free and we visited the city centre of Heidelberg, where EMBL is based, which is really beautiful!

Day three included a session on epigenetic memory. Presentations included topics on epigenetic cell memory, mechanisms of heterochromatin regulation, single-cell multimodal chromatin profiling, epigenetic inheritance and cell division, regulation of nucleosome positioning, and the roles of chromatin modifiers in mouse development. At the same time another session was focused on genome organisation and function covering topics on novel multi-omics approaches in single cells, dissecting the genome’s structure-function relationship during neural circuit stimulation, a complex in Drosophila, a DNA compaction machine, epigenetic inheritance, characterisation of regulatory variation effects in brain, mechanism of cohesin release/3D genome folding control, and structure of the nucleosome-bound human BCL7A. In the afternoon, the second poster session took place, where I presented the project of Eirini Sofia Fasouli, a postdoc in my lab. The day finished with a dinner and a conference party at the ATC Foyer, where all participants had a great time!

On the fourth and last day, the last session focused on chromatin and transcriptional dynamics with talks on spatially resolved single-cell omics, genome organisation/function around the nucleolus, importance of biomolecular condensates at the nuclear pore for chromatin organisation maintenance, chromatin remodelling activity of CHD4, PNUTS phosphatase complex that controls transcription pause release, SMCHD1 that compacts DNA directly and the control of transcription elongation across the chromatin template. The conference finished with the poster prize winner announcements.

My participation in this conference was a real pleasure and has provided me with valuable information from both the scientific and the technical/methodological point of view. It contributed to my personal scientific progress and transfer of knowledge back to my Institute in Greece. I returned to my lab with a lot of new ideas and I am looking forward to the next meeting in two years time!

The EMBL Conference ‘Chromatin and epigenetics’ took place from 13 – 16 May 2025 at EMBL Heidelberg and virtually.

Did you know that you can become an event reporter and receive a conference fee waiver in exchange? Find out how to do that by visiting our Become an event reporter page.