International Human Epigenome Consortium

The International Human Epigenome Consortium (IHEC) is a scientific organization, founded in 2010, that helps to coordinate global efforts in the field of Epigenomics.^[1][2][3][4] Specifically, IHEC member organizations are engaged in efforts to generate at least 1,000 reference (baseline) human epigenomes from different types of normal and disease-related human cell types.^[5][6][7]

Structure and funding

IHEC’s operations are funded by its full members (national and regional scientific funding agencies), and staffed largely on a volunteer basis by scientists and other experts from participating funding agencies and epigenome mapping projects. Full member countries each agree to invest at least USD 10 million in IHEC-aligned epigenome mapping activities.^[8]

Current full members of IHEC

• Canadian Institutes for Health Research (Canada)^[9]
• European Commission (EU)^{[10][11][12][13]}
• European Institute of Oncology, FIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology Foundation, Italian Institute of Technology, Centre for Genomic Science (Italy)
• Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Project Management Agency within the German Aerospace Centre (Germany)^[14][15]
• Japan Science and Technology Agency (Japan)^[16]
• National Institute of Health (South Korea)
• National Institutes of Health Roadmap Epigenomics Program (USA)

In addition, IHEC Member Observers are organizations that have not yet made a full financial contribution to the project, but whose members provide time and expertise.^[8]

Current IHEC Member Observers

• National Agency of Research (France)
• National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia)
• UK Funders Alliance: Medical Research Council, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Cancer Research UK, and Wellcome Trust (UK)

Oversight of the IHEC is provided by an Executive Committee, whose members are nominated by Full Member organizations.^[17] This committee works closely with an International Scientific Steering Committee, whose members are the scientific leaders of participating projects and other leaders in the field of epigenetics, as well as a Data Coordination Center. Additional expertise is contributed by workgroups composed of members of participating research projects.

IHEC interacts and coordinates its efforts with other large-scale international genomics projects, such as the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC)^[18] and ENCODE.^[19][20] Committee and workgroup members, as well as other individuals involved in IHEC, meet annually at an event hosted by member countries on a rotating basis.^[21] Most meetings are hosted in conjunction with a scientific symposium, some of which are open to non-IHEC scientists and sometimes members of the public.

Goals

The ultimate objective of IHEC is to determine how the Epigenome has shaped human populations over generations and in response to the environment.^[19] The first phase of IHEC’s operations involves coordinating the production of at least 1,000 reference epigenomes from healthy and diseased human cells, as well as a limited number of model organisms relevant to specific human diseases. The initial focus is on cellular states including stemness, immortality, proliferation, differentiation, senescence, and stress. The reference epigenome for each sample comprises high resolution maps of DNA methylation and key regulatory histone modifications, with corresponding information about the type and expression level of all transcribed genes (protein coding as well as non-coding / small RNAs).^[22] The data produced are made freely available to the research community.^[6][19][23]

In addition, participating research projects are engaged in developing new epigenomics and associated bioinformatics methods.

References

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