Core Research for Evolutionary Science and Technology (CREST)
http://www.jst.go.jp/kisoken/crest/en/index.html
The International Human Epigenome Consortium (IHEC) annual meeting was held in Berlin, Germany, on November 10-12, 2013. This was the next meeting to the Seoul meeting in 2012, and was organized by the German epigenome program (DEEP), which is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
More than 200 people took part in the event, and, from Japan, JST as a funding member of the IHEC and members of the three CREST research projects joined the meeting. Other than Japan, Canada, EU, Germany, South Korea, Italy, and USA participated in the meeting as the members of the IHEC.
The IHEC is a consortium that aims to map reference epigenomes of at least 1,000 tissues and cells, cooperating with participant countries.
During the first half of the meeting ("IHEC Day"), each country introduced the progress of the last one year, and six working groups, such as Communication, Metadata standards, and Data Ecosystem, reported their activities. The second half of the meeting ("Science Day") was devoted to presentations on science, and approximately 20 researchers from all over the world made presentations of their leading edge studies. The meeting was successful to share and discuss the progress of each country and issues to work on.
JST started to join the IHEC in May, 2011. The CREST research area “Development of Fundamental Technologies for Diagnosis and Therapy Based upon Epigenome Analysis” focuses on the discovery of new principles and establishment of fundamental medical technologies based on epigenome analyses, in addition to the mapping of reference epigenome contributing to IHEC.
- Reference URL:
International Human Epigenome Consortiumn (IHEC) - Reference URL:
International Human Epigenome Consortium, IHEC, Team Japan - Reference URL:
“Development of Fundamental Technologies for Diagnosis and Therapy Based upon Epigenome Analysis” Research Area/Project Homepage
JST, an integrated organization of science and technology in Japan, establishes an infrastructure for the entire process from the creation of knowledge to the return to the society. For more information, visit http://www.jst.go.jp/EN/