EPIGEN

The Epigenomics Flagship Project (Progetto Bandiera Epigenomica) EPIGEN, is part of a new initiative from the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) and the National Research Council of Italy (CNR) to promote excellence, competitiveness and increase the visibility of the research which is carried out in the country. EPIGEN is also meant to be an important contributor to the efforts of the International Human Epigenomics Consortium (IHEC). The flagship project on Epigenomics has been launched very recently and currently consists of 40 teams of researchers in the field of epigenomics. Our consortium is highly multidisciplinary, our laboratories employ different experimental approaches and technologies so we aim to establish close collaborations and keep these synergies during and beyond the lifetime of the project. Subproject 2. Bioinformatics center for integration of epigenomics data and systems biology. The creation of a bioinformatics platform within the project will bring together the expertise on this field currently available across the country. Algorithms and software for epigenomics analyses will be developed by the participants of this subproject and made available through the EPIGEN website. Training of scientists in bioinformatics will be also one of the roles of this platform, as an attempt to increase the number of bioinformaticians in Italy. We envisage to organize several workshops throughout the entire duration of the project. The center for these activities is located at the CASPUR (Interuniversity Consortium for the Application of Super-Computing for Universities and Research) in Rome.