January, 2023
Welcome to the Cancer Epigenetics Society, the official society of cancer epigenetics research!
The goal of the Cancer Epigenetics Society is to support cancer and epigenetics scientists in their research, help speed up the process of cancer discovery, and facilitate the translation of basic research into clinical practice. To do so, the Cancer Epigenetics Society is developing several tools and resources, the first being the Cancer Epigenetics Drug Database (CEDD), currently consisting of a collection of more than 5,000 cell viability, cell proliferation, cell migration, tumorigenicity, and metastasis experiments, in the presence of DNA methyltransferase inhibitors, histone deacetylase inhibitors, histone methyltransferase inhibitors, or histone demethylases. We expect to expand on these data in the coming months, in order to provide as valuable a resource as possible to scientists and oncology trialists. This database is the first of four integrated databases to be released. Furthermore, by making CEDD open-access to our members, we aim not only at saving our members valuable time researching the primary literature, but also to help them visualize synergistic connectivities among epigenetic modifiers or drugs, and overall to generate soft lines of thinking by looking at the broader picture of oncogenic and/or epigenetic processes that may not readily be inferred from single articles. In addition to the cancer epigenetics databases, we have developed a publishing model that dramatically speeds up the time from manuscript submission to publication, while at the same time significantly increasing data reproducibility, visibility, and impact. These measures, we think, will further help position the field of cancer epigenetics as a leader in innovation and discovery in cancer and oncology research.
For our patients, and to the best of our knowledge, the Cancer Epigenetics Society is only one of a few cancer or epigenetics societies (or associations) that brings science and health professionals together with “lay persons” in the same and one platform. We think this will help put a human face on cancer for academics that may otherwise be completely taken by their research, while at the same time enabling patients and their friends and family to follow firsthand the amazing progress made in the field.
Several talented and committed individuals have come to learn, obtain specialized training, or work at the Cancer Epigenetics Society, and we are deeply grateful for the many positive and productive collaborations we have had, including with Dave Aryee, Susanne Dormayer, Pierre Foyang, Thomas Habenschuss, Isabella Hübscher, Sanja Karlovic Novacki, Christian Kastner, Mariya Licheva, Andrea Neudolt, Petya Penelova, Dorottya Sáray, Anna Wilder, and Simona Winkler, to cite a few. Similarly, we are indebted to a large number of scientists who’ve shown the Society tremendous support, or else shared with us facts and data that have allowed us to build some of the resources we are providing to the cancer epigenetics community. These include David C. Allis (Rockefeller University), Paola B. Arimondo (CNRS), Cheryl Arrowsmith (University of Toronto), Sir Shankar Balasubramanian (University of Cambridge), Andrew Bannister (University of Cambridge), Stephen B. Baylin (Johns Hopkins University), Stephan Beck (University College London Cancer Institute), Nora N. Bennani (Mayo Clinic), Thomas Carell (Ludwig Maximillians University), Hetty Carraway (Cleveland Clinic), Giacomo Cavalli (Institute for Human Genetics), Susan J. Clark (University of New South Wales), Jeffrey Craig (Murdoch Children’s Research Institute), Sharon R.Y. Dent (MD Anderson Cancer Center), Luciano Di Croce (Centre for Genomic Regulation), Alexander Dobrovic (Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute), Lucy A. Godley (University of Chicago), James Herman (University of Pittsburgh), Bernhard Horsthemke (Institute of Human Genetics), Peter Jones (Van Andel Research Institute), Cigall Kadoch (Harvard University, MIT), Tatiana Kutateladze (University of Colorado), Jonathan D. Licht (University of Florida Health Cancer Center), Owen A. O’Connor (Columbia University), Keith D. Robertson (Mayo Clinic), Christopher J. Schofield (University of Oxford), Ayalew Tefferi (Mayo Clinic), and Jerry Workman (Stowers Medical Institute).
It has only been a few years since we engaged the social media, and we are happy to report that the Cancer Epigenetics Society pages on Facebook and LinkedIn are already some of the most followed pages in cancer or epigenetics on those platforms. We will continue to work hard to keep up with the interest and to further increase the visibility and reach of cancer epigenetics research in the social media.
Finally, the Cancer Epigenetics Society is now a full member of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), the largest network of institutions engaged in the research and treatment of cancer (see news here), as it is a full member of the of the EU-funded Epichembio, the largest European epigenetics network (see news here).
It is an immeasurable privilege to lead the efforts of the Cancer Epigenetics Society, and we very much look forward to working with all our members and colleagues around the globe to continue our mission, and to further contribute to the fields of cancer and epigenetics research.