2025 VAI Epigenetics Symposium
The 2025 VAI Epigenetics Symposium will feature the latest advances at the intersection of epigenetics and structural biology. Our outstanding roster of speakers will highlight:
- Structural aspects of histone and DNA modifications
- Mechanisms that regulate deposition, removal and recognition of epigenetic modifications
- The mechanistic basis of transcription regulation by epigenetic modifications
- How epigenetic modifications regulate chromatin structure
For questions or to be added to our email list, please contact Courtney Zirkle.
NYU Langone Health
George D. Yancopoulos Professor of Pediatrics in honor of Frederick W. Alt
Faculty affiliate, Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School
Faculty affiliate, Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Taekjip Ha is George D. Yancopoulos Professor of Pediatrics in honor of Frederick W. Alt at Harvard Medical School and senior investigator of Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital. He has also been an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 2005. He develops and uses single molecule and single cell measurement tools to study life at high resolution. Dr. Ha received a bachelor’s in Physics from Seoul National University in 1990 and Ph.D in Physics from University of California at Berkeley in 1996. After postdoctoral training at Stanford, he was a physics professor at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign until 2015 and Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University 2015-2023. Dr. Ha serves on editorial boards for Science. He is a member of the National Academy of Science and the National Academy of Medicine, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was elected as President of the Biophysical Society in 2021.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Professor, The University of Tokyo
Hitoshi Kurumizaka joined the laboratory of Dr. Takehiko Shibata at RIKEN with the aim to study the mechanisms of DNA recombination. After receiving his Ph.D. degree in 1995 (Saitama University), he started his postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health in the USA, in the laboratory of Dr. Alan Wolffe, where he broadened his scientific interest to the chromatin field. Two years later, he joined RIKEN as a research scientist. In 2003, he moved to Waseda University, first as an independent associate professor, then as a full professor in 2008. He has studied various nucleosomes and chromatin units by unraveling their structural and biochemical properties. In 2018, he moved to Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, The University of Tokyo, as a professor (Deputy Director from 2023). His ongoing research interests are chromatin structure-based epigenetic regulatory mechanisms of genomic DNA in eukaryotes. In 2020, he established his own cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) platform to accelerate the analysis and elucidation processes in his lab. Notably, he has revealed the structural transitions of the nucleosome during transcription, and, more recently, unveiled the functions of RAD51 at DSB sites in chromatin by capturing snapshot structures of RAD51-nucleosome complexes.
Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Dr. Ci Ji Lim earned his doctorate in biophysics from the National University of Singapore in 2014. He then completed his postdoctoral training in biochemistry at the University of Colorado, Boulder. In 2020, Dr. Lim joined the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison as a tenure-track assistant professor. The Lim Lab is investigating the structure of human telomeres — the protective caps made of DNA and protein that safeguard the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes. Lim is the recipient of the NIH Pathway to Independent Career Award and the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, and he has been named a Pew Biomedical Scholar.
Associate Professor
Head, Laboratory of Nanoscale Biophysics and Biochemistry, The Rockefeller University
Shixin Liu obtained his Ph.D. in chemistry at Harvard University, conducted postdoctoral research at University of California, Berkeley, and has been on the faculty of The Rockefeller University since 2016, where he is now associate professor and head of the Laboratory of Nanoscale Biophysics & Biochemistry. Dr. Liu’s group mainly leverages single-molecule biophysical techniques to visualize the real-time dynamics of DNA- and chromatin-based processes such as replication and transcription. His research program continues to push the boundaries of biochemical complexity and quantitative dimension in their experimental systems, shedding new light on the molecular mechanisms underlying genetic and epigenetic inheritance. Dr. Liu has received several early-career awards including an NIH Director’s New Innovator award and a Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise.
University of Leicester
Investigator, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Rui-Ming Xu, Ph.D., is an Investigator at Institute of Biophysics (IBP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He obtained his Ph.D. degree in physics from Brandeis University in 1990. After three-and-a-half years of postdoctoral training in Physics at UT Austin and SUNY Stony Brook, he changed his research area to structural biology at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL). There, he was promoted to an independent PI in 1996 and rose through the ranks to full professor in 2005. He then moved to the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine at NYU School of Medicine as a Professor of Pharmacology. In 2009, he relocated to IBP, CAS and, besides research work, served in various leadership positions, including director, for over ten years.
Dr. Xu’s main research interest is on the structural basis of epigenetic control of gene expression and chromatin structure and dynamics. He has made trailblazing contributions in unraveling the mechanisms of histone modifications and recognition, structure and functions of histone variants and histone chaperones, nucleosome assembly and higher-order chromatin structures. Dr. Xu’s achievements in research and mentoring have been widely recognized. He is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a recipient of the Outstanding Science and Technology Achievement Award of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2022, and Outstanding Mentor Award of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2023 and 2024.
Assistant Professor of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
HHMI Freeman Hrabowksi Scholar
Seychelle Vos is an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at MIT. Professor Vos completed a Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2013. Her doctoral research investigated molecular mechanisms regulating machines involved in DNA organization. She completed her postdoctoral work at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Germany where she determined how the machine responsible for gene expression is regulated near gene promoters. She uses structural biology (cryo-electron microscopy and X-ray crystallography) and biochemistry to understand how gene expression and genome organization are physically coupled. She has received the NIH DP2 award and is a HHMI Freeman Hrabowski Scholar.
Poster abstracts may be submitted during registration, which will open in spring 2025. For questions or to be added to our email list, please contact Courtney Zirkle
Eligibility
Students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty and research staff are welcome to submit an abstract. If the number of submitted poster abstracts exceeds the space, the organizers will select the abstracts that are most relevant to the conference theme.
Abstract format
Submitted abstracts should represent original research. The title should be brief and descriptive, and the body should include rationale, methods and results. Please prepare abstracts using the below template.
Abstract submission
Poster abstracts should be submitted during the registration process.
Questions?
Questions regarding abstract submission, posters, or the poster session can be directed to Courtney Zirkle.
TITLE OF ABSTRACT IN ALL CAPS (STYLE = TITLE)
Presenting Author1,2, Other Author1, and Last Author1,3(Style = Authors)
1First Dept., Institution, City, State, Country, 2Second Dept., Institution, City, State, Country, and 3Last Dept., Institution, City, State, Country (Style = Affiliations)
Body of abstract using 300 words or less. Define each abbreviation at first use. All fonts should be Arial, 11 pt. and text should be single spaced. Once you have filled in this template, choose File>Save As and save your file as a Word document (.doc or .docx) with the filename lastname_abstract. (Style = Body)
EXAMPLE
STRUCTURAL INSIGHTS INTO PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY
Andrew Pospisilik1 and Huilin Li2
1Department of Epigenetics, Van Andel Institute, Grand Rapids, MI, United States, 2Department of Structural Biology, Van Andel Institute, Grand Rapids, MI, United States
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum….
The 2025 VAI Epigenetics Symposium will feature the latest advances at the intersection of epigenetics and structural biology.
Sponsorship BenefitsFor questions about sponsorship, please contact Courtney Zirkle.
Chair and Professor, Department of Structural Biology
Ralph and Grace Hauenstein Endowed Chair in Structural Biology
Van Andel Institute
Dr. Huilin Li uses cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to reveal the most basic building blocks of DNA replication and other systems vital for life. He has been at the vanguard of cryo-EM for more than 20 years, and his research has implications for some of the world’s most critical public health concerns, including tuberculosis, cancer, mental illness and many more.
Professor and Chair, Department of Epigenetics
Van Andel Institute
Dr. J. Andrew Pospisilik seeks to understand how we become whom we become, and how our disease susceptibility is defined from early on in life, even before conception, with the long-term goal of being able to predict lifelong health outlook at birth.
Professor, Department of Epigenetics
Van Andel Institute
Dr. Xiaobing Shi investigates the mechanisms that regulate DNA and gene expression to better understand how they impact cancer development. His research has led to the discovery of several new “readers” of epigenetic marks that may serve as targets for cancer treatment.
Assistant Professor, Department of Structural Biology
Van Andel Institute
Dr. Evan Worden leverages VAI’s powerful suite of cryo-electron microscopes to explore the complex molecular interactions that give rise to cancer. To date, his research has revealed novel insights into poorly understood regulatory elements in the genetic code and illuminated how aberrations in these processes can transform healthy cells into malignant ones.
When is VAI Epigenetics Symposium? How much does it cost?
The VAI Epigenetics Symposium will take place Monday, July 28, 2025. The registration fees for the symposium are:
- $50 for trainees (graduate students and postdoctoral fellows)
- $100 for non-trainees
What does the registration fee include?
The registration fee includes lunch, as well as an evening networking reception.
Is the VAI Epigenomics Workshop part of the symposium?
No, the VAI Epigenomics Workshop is a separate workshop for graduate students. More information is available here. The workshop will begin July 29, 2025, and end July 31, 2025. All trainees accepted to participate in the workshop will be invited to attend the entirety of the symposium at no charge.
When does registration for the VAI Epigenetics Symposium and the application period for the VAI Epigenomics Workshop open?
Registration for the symposium and the application period for the workshop opens Thursday, February 20, 2025.
- Monday, July 21, 2025, is the final day to register for the symposium. Onsite registrations will not be accepted.
- Friday, April 11, 2025, is the final day to apply for the workshop. Applicants will be notified of acceptance by the end of May.
Important Dates
- Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025: Symposium registration and workshop applications open.
- Friday, April 11, 2025: VAI Epigenomics Workshop application period closes.
- May 2025: VAI Epigenomics Workshop applicants notified.
- Friday, June 6, 2025: Deadline to submit abstract selected talks for the symposium.
- Monday, June 16, 2025: Abstract selected talk speakers notified.
- Friday, July 18, 2025: Deadline to submit a poster abstract.
- Monday, July 21, 2025: Registration closes for the VAI Epigenetics Symposium.
- Monday, July 28, 2025: VAI Epigenetics Symposium
- Wednesday, July 29 – Friday, July 31, 2025: VAI Epigenomics Workshop
Can I register a group for the VAI Epigenetics Symposium?
Yes! The registration form allows one person to register and pay for a group. Once registration is complete for one person, please click “add person” in the bottom right corner of the form. Input the second person’s information and continue in this manner until all parties in the group are registered. The system will then charge a total cost for the group.
Will late registrations for the VAI Epigenetics Symposium be accepted?
Unfortunately, late registrations will not be accepted. All attendees must register online by 11:59 p.m. EST on Monday, July 21, 2025.
What if I need accessible parking?
Please contact Courtney Zirkle at courtney.zirkle@vai.org to discuss any accessibility needs.
What if I have dietary needs?
Please include any dietary allergies or restrictions on your registration or application form. Every effort will be made to accommodate requests.
How do I become a sponsor?
Please contact Courtney Zirkle at courtney.zirkle@vai.org for more information on sponsorship opportunities.
What is the refund policy for the symposium?
Refund requests must be made in writing on or before July 21, 2025, and sent to Courtney Zirkle at courtney.zirkle@vai.org.
Refunds will not be accepted after July 21, 2025. However, you may substitute a registrant in your place through Friday, July 25, 2025.
How do I get to VAI?
Van Andel Institute is located in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan, and is approximately 20 minutes from the Gerald R. Ford International Airport. VAI is conveniently located within walking distance of multiple local hotels. Lyft, Uber, and taxi services are available in Grand Rapids.
Looking for accommodations? Here are some close suggestions:
Amway Grand Plaza, Curio Collection by Hilton – 187 Monroe Ave NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49503
Distance to VAI: 0.6 miles
JW Marriott Grand Rapids – 235 Louis St NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49503
Distance to VAI: 0.7 miles
AC Hotel – 50 Monroe Ave NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49503
Distance to VAI: 0.6 miles
Code of Conduct Guidelines
We are dedicated to providing a harassment-free, non-discriminatory symposium experience for all participants, regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability, pregnancy, height, weight, marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or other personal characteristics covered by applicable law. We will not tolerate harassment of conference participants in any form. We expect participants at our events to engage in constructive and professional discussions at all times. Harassment can include unwelcomed attention, inappropriate comments or jokes that refer to gender differences, sexual topics, requests for dates, or other sexual activities as well as the use of language that may demean or degrade individuals. These behaviors are not appropriate for any of our conference venues, including talks, workshops, networking sessions, poster sessions, social networking platforms, and other online media platforms. Any participant violating these guidelines will be removed from the symposium at the discretion of the conference organizers.
Anyone who has experienced the above, or who has witnessed such behavior, should notify Courtney Zirkle. Anonymous reporting may also be done through the EthicsPoint Hotline.
Monday, July 28, 2025
8:00 AM | Breakfast
8:30 AM | Opening Remarks
Session One – Keynote Session
8:30 AM | Keynote Address
9:15 AM | Coffee Break
Session Two
9:45 AM | Scientific Talks
11:10 AM | Coffee Break
Session Three
11:40 AM | Scientific Talks
1:05 PM | Lunch
Session Four
2:05 PM | Scientific Talks
4:05 PM | Coffee Break
Session Five – Keynote Session
4:35 PM | Keynote Address
5:20 PM | Closing Remarks
5:30 PM | Poster Session and Reception at VAI
Event Details
Contact Info:
Email: Courtney Zirkle