Epigenetics

Celebrating Twenty Years of Epigenetics

Over the past two decades, the field of epigenetics transformed our understanding of how gene activity is regulated. Since the launch of the journal Epigenetics in 2006, the field has rapidly expanded; a feat driven by technology advances revealing how DNA methylation, histone modifications, chromatin organization, and non-coding RNAs shape genome function. The journal has played an important role in this progress, providing a dedicated platform for epigenetic discoveries across diverse organisms and systems, and encompassing the ever-expanding subtopics within the epigenetics community. As the journal marks its twentieth year, we call for papers to this article collection that reflect key milestones defining the field’s development and highlight emerging directions that will guide future research. This collection of perspectives, reviews, and original studies will celebrate two decades of innovation in the community while looking ahead to the next era of epigenetic research.

Research continues to reveal how environmental exposures, development, aging, and disease influence gene regulation through epigenetic mechanisms. These insights have reshaped multiple areas of biology and medicine, including cancer research, developmental biology, neuroscience, and precision medicine. In this collection, we will document progress in the field and the role Epigenetics has played in its advancement. This will highlight the continued role of the journal as a space for understanding how epigenetics mediates complex biological systems.

This collection will explore the evolution and future trajectory of epigenetics by highlighting key themes that have defined the field over the past twenty years while identifying emerging areas of investigation. Topics of interest include advances in the study of DNA methylation, histone modifications, chromatin structure and 3D genome organization, and RNA epigenetics. Contributions addressing epigenetic regulation in human development, aging and disease, along with epigenetics in other model systems are encouraged. In addition, the collection welcomes work focused on technological and analytical innovations, including epigenomic profiling, single-cell and spatial epigenomics, and computational approaches for integrating epigenetic datasets. We highly encourage focused reviews and perspectives but will also accept original research articles that highlight novel technologies, methodological studies, and significant advancements in the field.

Keywords:

1. Two decades of epigenetics research
2. Advances in epigenetic mechanisms and technologies
3. Evolution of epigenomics and chromatin biology
4. Emerging directions in epigenetics research
5. Perspectives on the future of epigenetics

Guest Advisors

Manel Esteller graduated in Medicine from the Universitat de Barcelona, where he obtained his Ph.D. Dr. Esteller was an Investigator at Johns Hopkins where his work established promoter hypermethylation of tumor suppressor genes as a cancer hallmark. His research as Leader of the Cancer Epigenetics Group at the Sant Pau Research Institute and as Chairman of Genetics and ICREA Research Professor is devoted to the establishment of the epigenome and epitranscriptome maps in disease and aging. For further details about Prof. Esteller's professional profile, kindly refer to these links: https://www.icrea.cat/community/icreas/17593/manel-esteller/ or https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4490-6093.

Barbara Stefanska is an Associate Professor of Nutriepigenomics at The University of British Columbia, Canada. Her research focuses on epigenetic pharmacology, with a particular emphasis on nutritional epigenomics. Her work centers on dietary bioactive compounds, especially polyphenols, as agents that target epigenetic processes. Using advanced omics approaches, she investigates how polyphenols influence the “writers,” “readers,” and “erasers” of epigenetic marks in human cells and animal models. Her overarching goal is to understand how these compounds regulate cellular function and to develop new strategies for targeting abnormal epigenetic patterns. Dr. Stefanska was the first to demonstrate mechanistically that polyphenols can modulate cellular functions through epigenetic pathways. She is also addressing a key research gap by studying the role of nuclear metabolites in epigenetic regulation of gene transcription, an emerging area known as compartmentalized metabolomics. More recently, her research has expanded into exploring the epigenetic mechanisms underlying muscle-brain crosstalk, as well as the epigenetic regulation of polyphenol synthesis in plants that exhibit increased resilience to environmental stress. For further details about Prof. Stefanska's professional profile, kindly refer to these links: https://www.landfood.ubc.ca/barbara-stefanska/ or https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1186-3210.

Tony Gutschner is a Full Professor of RNA Biology and Pathogenesis at the Faculty of Medicine of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. His research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of cancer, particularly the roles of non-coding RNAs and RNA-binding proteins in tumor development and metastasis. After studying biochemistry in Halle, he joined the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and received his doctorate from Heidelberg University in 2012. Subsequently, he conducted postdoctoral research at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, USA. Since establishing his independent research group in Halle in 2017, he has advanced the understanding of RNA-mediated gene regulation in cancer and the identification of novel therapeutic targets. His work integrates functional genomics, including CRISPR-based approaches, with molecular and cellular biology to uncover regulatory RNA networks in tumor biology. For further details about Prof. Gutschner's professional profile, kindly refer to these links: www.umh.de/gutschnerlab or https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1722-3134.

Disclosure statement: Guest Advisors declare no conflict of interest.

All manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo a standard peer-review. Please review the journal scope and author submission instructions prior to submitting a manuscript.

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Please contact Changluan Zhou at [email protected] with any queries and discount codes regarding this Article Collection.