The 2024 International Conference on Epigenetics and Bioengineering will be held on October 3–5 at the Hotel Casa Amsterdam in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Organized by AIChE’s Society for Biological Engineering (SBE), the conference will focus on computational epigenetics, clinical epigenetics engineering, emerging technologies, perturbing chromatin and epigenetic engineering, sensing epigenetic modifications, and single cell epigenetics.
The conference will bring together interdisciplinary expertise in the field, allying biology, chemistry, physics, data processing (bioinformatics), and engineering to foster the development of novel methodologies and tools to answer biological questions in epigenetics. Reserve your spot today.
We recently spoke with Albert Jeltsch, Professor at the University of Stuttgart, and 2024 EpiBio conference speaker, to learn about what he’ll be discussing at the conference, current trends in the field, and his thoughts on the future of epigenetics.
What inspired you to do research in the field of epigenetics?
I received my education in the era of genome sequencing. Epigenetics deals with the fascinating biological question of how different cell phenotypes can be derived from a single zygote, which is extending the scope of genomics. Epigenetic regulation includes minimal chemical modifications of DNA and proteins which must be set and read with high accuracy. At the same time, epigenetic signals must be inherited though cell division and sometimes over the germ line, but also edited during development where needed. This raises very interesting biochemical questions regarding the molecular principles of accurate control of the activity of epigenetic enzymes and the mechanism of how epigenetic modification controls the binding of reader protein with downstream signaling.
How do you envision your field of research solving some of the challenges in society?
My entire scientific work centers around questions of biochemical specificity, both enzyme specificity and the specificity of protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions. Using innovative experimental approaches, we have provided important contributions showing how DNA and protein methyltransferases find and select their specific targets. This helps to understand the important question of how DNA methylation patterns can be inherited and how protein methyltransferases initially described to act on histone proteins also methylate other proteins in cells. Moreover, we investigated how epigenetic reader proteins can identify complex chromatin modifications comprising more than one chemical mark and what such complex marks do in cells.
Are there any new developments, technologies, or applications of technologies in epigenetics that you are particularly excited about?
In the perspective of fundamental research, I am thrilled by the ongoing increase in our knowledge and understanding of the highly complex epigenome regulation machineries. This is a beautiful example illustrating how ongoing research allows us to move our understanding right into the molecular processes, which illustrates the ultimate mechanisms that keep living system up and running. From the applied side, epigenome editing will allow us in future to investigate epigenetic signaling processes with a new experimental approach, moving the field from descriptive to explorative approaches. Moreover, it will allow us to reprogram cells, which holds great clinical potential.
What are you hoping the audience takes away from this conference and your presentation?
My hope is for the audience to walk away with new ideas, extended knowledge and understanding, fascination about the field, and new partners for collaborative research work.
Learn more about the 7th International Conference on Epigenetics and Bioengineering
Group Registration Discount: A discount of 15% is available for groups of five or more regular participants of the same affiliation (e.g., universities, research institutes, or companies); it does not apply to students. Email aibhl@aiche.org for promo code.
Conference Grants Available: Funding is available to help sponsor some registrations and travel costs for EpiBio 2024. Students, post-docs, and early-career professionals are encouraged to apply. Apply today.
About SBE
Established in 2004, the Society for Biological Engineering is a technological community for engineers and applied scientists integrating biology with engineering. Members of SBE come from a broad spectrum of industries and disciplines and share in SBE’s mission of realizing the benefits of bioprocessing, biomedical, and biomolecular applications. Learn more about SBE.