The 5th Epigenetics conference was held at the Dolce CampoReal village, Lisbon, from 1 - 4 October 2026. There were 76 registrations and, concerning the geographical breakdown of participants, 59% came from European countries, 36% from the US, 5% from countries from the rest of the world. Concerning the career status of the participants, 33% are students, 60% are academics, and 7% have positions in industry.

The 5th meeting on “Epigenetics, from mechanisms to therapy” gathered an outstanding mix of young scientists, junior and established principal investigators with interdisciplinary expertise in many fields related to epigenetics. The 38 talks, including 24 invited and 14 selected speakers, were of outstanding quality and presented a broad spectrum of topics united by the general aim of understanding life, aging and disease processes. In addition to give the stage to excellent young speakers, posters were also a highlight, thanks to flash poster presentations where each poster presenter was given a one minute poster teaser time. This attracted the overwhelming majority of the participants to three very lively poster sessions, including junior and senior PIs, and three poster prizes were awarded.

As an outcome, we learnt a great deal about transcription regulation, epigenetic mechanisms implicated in learning, memory and memory loss, the role of chromatin components such as chromatin remodelers, histone modifiers, readers, Polycomb and heterochromatin, DNA methylation components as well as noncoding RNAs. The approaches included single cell multiomic methods, in vitro and in vivo systems, biochemistry and structural biology, genomics, molecular, cell and developmental biology of model and non-model organisms, sophisticated in vitro cell differentiation approaches and organoid culture models and patient samples. AI applications for creative analyses of the data and iterative loops of data analysis, generation of hypotheses, testing hypotheses and refinment of the interpretations.

Each talk was given time for discussion and the Q&A sessions were extremely lively, leading some session chairs to accept moderate delay of the timing in order to allow the exciting brainstorming to develop. The talks presented data that frequently challenged the dogmas in a constructive and creative way, particularly concerning the role of different Polycomb complexes in chromatin targeting, gene regulation and cancer, as well as on the role of noncoding RNAs and epigenetic modifications versus mutations in the process of tumorigenesis. Exciting talks on the role of epigenetics in brain function were also presented and discussed.

It is important to note that questions were made from young scientists as much as established scientifsts, indicating that we succeeded in generating an informal and friendly atmosphere throughout the meeting. Additionally, each session was co-chaired by a young scientists, further contributing to creating bridges between generations. Finally, short talks selected from abstracts were considered by many participants to be of an excellent level, not only for the quality and novelty of data discussed but also for the overall quality of the presentations.

One special contribution to the meeting was given by Cell-ID, an excellence French consortium funded by the “France 2030” programme to study cell fates and identities in pediatric brain cancers. Cell-ID generously provided a 10,000 € fund that allowed to sponsor the participation of two speakers, Giacomo Cavalli and Geneviève Almouzni, as well as three young scientists, Christelle El Kai, Diego Polanco-Alonsom, and Joel Herrera Martínez. This gave Cell-ID center stage and allowed it to showcase its science success, while also allowing these five participants to learn many new scientific findings that will impact their research in the framework of Cell-ID.

I addition to the main scientific program, the meeting also included a Mix & Match session, where many participants chose their speaker of interest for a joint lunch, with many invited speakers involved and lots of participants joining the tables for lively discussions. Early Career Researchers participated in a Career Targeted talk held by Sir. Tony Kouzarides who inspired participants by sharing his extended baggage of expertise, both in academia and in the private sector and instilling his sparling energy and optimism, to encourage them to dare while keeping an eye on the practical aspects needed to approach their career challenges. Finally, a “Meet the editors panel discussion” hosting Laura Remis, Chief Editor of Science Advances and Chiara Anania, Senior Editor of Nature Genetics. They shared with the numerous session participants their account of what it is like to be an editor of a top scientific journal and discussed how to succeed with publishing scientific results. The many questions asked during the session showed how much young scientists need and want to know about the publishing process.

During and at the end of the meeting, many of the participants expressed their utmost gratitude for the brilliant organization and their excitement to continue attending this meeting, which blends a unique friendly atmosphere with thrilling science! They asked us to continue this series and we will be happy to do so.

Just as an example, one of the participant commented by email:

“Dear Giacomo and Luciano,  I wanted to tell you both how much I enjoyed your meeting. The science was great, the venue was charming, and the time interacting with colleagues was wonderful. Thanks to both of you for your efforts towards organizing the meeting, and for inviting me!”

The uniqueness of this meeting rests on a workshop format with a limited number of participants and an excitingly high ratio of invited speakers of outstanding quality to a limited amount of top young scientists. Thanks to abundant free time slots and poster session times, the interactions among young scientists and stars of the field are intense and fluid. Furthermore, the pleasant setting of the meeting, with a beautiful location and venue and very good food and drinks and a very nice bar for the evening post-meeting exchange sessions was inspiring interactions even more.

Finally, we wish to congratulate the fantastic Fusion team for their work. They participated big time to the success of the meeting. Congratulations Fusion, the epigenetic community is already looking forward to the next event in this series!

Conference Chairs, Giacomo CAVALLI (Institute of Human Genetics) and Luciano DI CROCE (Centre for Genomic Regulation)

We are pleased to announce we have a limited amount of €500 registration grants available to help defray the meeting costs for students, postdocs & junior faculty (within 3 years of your post-graduate position).

To apply, please email Rosie Johnson. Your application should include:

• An abstract for short talk or poster consideration

• A short statement as to why you would benefit from attending the meeting

Grant applications are now closed.

Interested in supporting the meeting? We'd love to hear from you! Please get in contact with the Conference Manager for further information.