The goal of the initiative is to support joint activities related to epigenetic research at the DKFZ and to foster rapid exchange of information between groups. Established in early 2009 with a founding workshop in January, the initiative was followed by a series seminars and annual workshops with keynote lectures by Jörn Walter (Saarbrücken), Joseph Costello (San Francisco), Manel Esteller (Barcelona), Paul Soloway (Cornell), Axel Imhoff (Munich) and Yasuhiro Yamada (Kyoto) as well as the establishment of a cooperation between the research sites Barcelona, Freiburg and Heidelberg. Moreover, epigenetics@dkfz supports pilot projects to develop epigenetic analyses as well as education and training in epigenetics for students and researchers at the DKFZ. The program strengthens interdisciplinary research in cancer epigenetics at DKFZ and its collaboration partners both at the national and international level.
