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The speaker line-up was impressive and all three of us from the Lab of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology of Ghent University were impressed by what a company can put together. - Delegate quote

On 25-27 August 2010, Abcam held the Epigenetics and Stem Cells conference at the Biotech Research and Innovation Center (BRIC), University of Copenhagen in Denmark. The conference was hosted by BRIC director and professor, Kristian Helin, co-chaired by associate professor Bo Porse and focused on new developments within the areas epigenetics, stem cells and cancer.

Over the three day conference 253 delegates attended 25 talks (from invited speakers and those selected from abstracts) and viewed more than 100 posters, which were presented.

The keynote speaker was Mina J Bissell, with a talk entitled: Modeling breast cancer, cancer invasion, and cancer stem cells in three dimensions: lessons from normal mammary gland.

Dr Ahmad Khalil gave a great talk on non-coding RNAs. He showed a number of interactions between non-coding RNAs and chromatin modifying complexes in both human and mouse cells.

Dr Huck Hui Ng discussed the integration of transcriptional networks in his talk. He showed how through mapping of transcription factor binding sites, his lab have identified new features of these networks that further define embryonic stem cell identity.

Other talks included:

• Kristian Helin (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) The role of Polycomb group proteins and lysine demethylases in stem cell differentiation and cancer
• Catriona Jamieson (Moores UCSD Cancer Center, US) Development of highly active anti-leukemia stem cell therapy
• Konrad Hochedlinger (Harvard University, US) Comparative studies between ESCs and iPSCs
• Eric So (King's College London, UK) Trithorax, Polycomb group and Hox proteins in establishment of leukemic stem cells
• Urban Lendahl (Karolinska Institute, Sweden) Notch and hypoxia cross-talk in stem cells and cancer

The conference social was held at the Brew Pub in central Copenhagen. The Brew Pub has its own micro-brewery and the enclosed inner courtyard provided great sheltered outdoor seating, along with the pub's cozy indoor basement bar and restaurant. The social provided a great atmosphere and environment for all the delegates to mingle and to relax after a full day of talks and posters.

The full conference summary (including photos) can be found on the post event website.

Join us for our next meeting in Scandinavia at the Chromatin, Replication and Chromosomal Stability conference in Stockholm, Sweden on June 20-21, 2011. We hope to see you there!