The world's leading scientists conducting epigenetic research will meet in Szczecin on June 8-10 this year. The meeting will be this year's most important epigenetics event, says the initiator and organizer of the Clinical Epigenetics International Conference, Dr. Tomasz K. Wojdacz.
Associate professor at Aarhus University in Denmark and head of the Independent Clinical Epigenetics Laboratory at the Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin added: “Many of the world's most outstanding experts in the field of clinical and basic epigenetics have confirmed their participation.”
The researchers who have accepted the invitation include Professor Susan Clark (Garvan Institute of Medical Research), Professor Stephan Beck (University College London), Professor Wolf Reik (Babraham Institute), as well as scientists from many other research centres in the USA, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, Canada and China.
Dr. Wojdacz said that in addition to esteemed guests, Polish students and young researchers are especially invited to participate. He said: “We want to interest them in this field, show its enormous potential and help them establish scientific contacts. This is the only way epigenetics has a chance to develop dynamically in our country.”
He added: “Participation in this type of meeting is a chance to make contacts in the community, which then helps develop a career. Just like other fields, science is based on a network of contacts.”
He continued that although the name of the conference includes the word 'clinical', it will not be exclusively medical. He said: “We have planned several completely non-medical sessions to show how widely this science is applicable. We have sessions on plants, animals, environmental protection.
“One of our guests will be a Polish professor from Australia, Ryszard Maleszka, a world leader in epigenetic research on the honey bee.”
The organizers hope that in the future, thanks to initiatives such as the Szczecin conference, epigenetics will start to develop more dynamically also in Poland. So far, there are very few groups dealing with this field in our country. The reason, according to Dr. Wojdacz, is not only that the research is very difficult, but also - above all - expensive.
He said: “I would like to see more and more centres opening their epigenetic laboratories in the future, so that more young scientists can become experts in this field. Its potential is really huge, in both medicine and other sciences.”
The Clinical Epigenetics International Conference will be held for the first time this year, but the organizers hope to make it a periodic event.
Find out more on the conference website: https://www.clepic.org/
PAP - Science in Poland, Katarzyna Czechowicz
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