EPIBOOST Advanced Course 2025

The third edition of the “EPIBOOST Advanced Course on Environmental epigenetics and risk assessment: challenges and perspectives” took place a few weeks ago, on the last week of February and the first two weeks of March. As in the previous editions, the first part was an online short course that provided an introduction to relevant concepts and techniques in epigenetics research, followed by an in-person week of both theory and practice on assessing epigenetic alterations, complemented by sessions on transferable soft skills that are vital to a successful career in science.

The short course was open to everyone with curiosity on the theme, and there were always around 50 participants in each session. The first session (February 27^th 2025) addressed the general concepts around epigenetics and its mechanisms and the applications of environmental epigenetics. The following session (February 28^th) focused on Ecological Risk Assessment, how to use genomic biomarkers in environmental assessment and how to integrate epigenetic tools into the study of Adverse Outcome Pathways. Then, in the third session (March 5^th), the participants dived into diverse techniques and technologies regarding the assessment of epigenetic mechanisms, with a special focus on the global, untargeted and targeted DNA methylation assessment. In the fourth session (March 6^th), there were talks on epigenetic clocks and age prediction and epigenetic studies with invertebrates. Lastly, the fifth session (March 7^th) approached the inclusion of transcriptomic data in the Ecological Risk Assessment under the Water Framework Directive scope and a case-study on the epigenetic changes in a model vertebrate subjected to early life exposure to contaminants. The talks originated interesting discussions between the speakers and the public, enriching all the participants!

The hands-on part of the advanced course took place at the University of Aveiro, between March 10^th and March 14^th 2025. There were 20 participants, who had the opportunity to both learning and training on the requirements and methodologies to perform quality control of nucleic acid samples for epigenetic applications and how to assess global methylation of DNA, as well as the basics of experimental planning, bioinformatics and data analyses in environmental epigenetics research. Adding on these practical works in the laboratory, participants had the opportunity to develop important soft skills for their scientific career with a workshop on the theme (more on those sessions in a separate post). This advanced course turned out to be a stimulating immersion in the world of environmental epigenetics! A huge thank you to all the speakers, trainers and participants for sharing your knowledge and interest! We look forward to hearing from your future works on epigenetics!