Meetings & Courses Program

Crossroads of Biology

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Chromatin, Epigenetics & Gene Expression
July 21 - August 9, 2026

Key Dates
Application Deadline:  April 27, 2026
Arrival: July 21st by 6pm EST
Departure: August 9th around 12pm EST

CSHL Courses are intensive, running all day and often including evenings and weekends; students are expected to attend all sessions and reside on campus for the duration of the course.

Instructors:
Jill Dowen, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Michael Guertin, University of Connecticut
Aaron Johnson, University of Colorado School of Medicine
Marc Mendillo, Northwestern University School of Medicine

See the roll of honor - who's taken the course in the past.

The Chromatin, Epigenetics & Gene Expression course is designed for students, postdocs, and principal investigators who have recently ventured into the exciting area of gene regulation. Emphasis will be placed on exposing students to a broad array of methodologies to study gene regulation, chromatin structure and dynamics, including both state-of-the-art and well-developed methods.

Students will perform widely used techniques such as:

  • 3D Chromatin Conformation assays (Micro-C)
  • ChIP coupled with sequencing (ChIP-seq)
  • Chromatin accessibiliy assays (ATAC-seq)
  • RNA expression analysis (RT-qPCR, RNA-seq)
  • Electrophoretic Mobility Shift Assay (EMSA)
  • Chromatin Biochemistry

Students will perform ChIP-seq and ATAC-seq and apply a basic pipeline to analyze their genomic results.

Students will learn about state-of-the-art genetic perturbation strategies. They will perform two of these methods to reduce or eliminate the expression of a gene of interest: RNA interference(RNAi), rapidly inducible degrons (dTAG), and CRISPR-Cas9 targeted disruption.  Further, students will compare how each method affects gene expression and function.

Students will learn how to assemble recombinant chromatin with modified histones and test specificity of epigenetic “reader” proteins and enzymes that modify chromatin.  Quantitative methods will be used to analyze activity and selectivity for specific substrates.

This course will also provide the basic concepts behind different methods to analyze the chromatin architecture of the genome. Moreover, we will discuss the computational methods required to analyze data concerning three-dimensional chromatin architecture.

Experience with basic recombinant DNA and molecular biology techniques is a prerequisite for admission to this course. Lectures by the instructors will cover the current state of the gene expression and epigenetics fields, theoretical aspects of the methodology, and broader issues regarding strategies for investigating the regulation of gene expression in eukaryotes. Emphasis will be placed on advantages and limitations of specific techniques, and data interpretation. Each evening, an invited speaker who is an expert in the field will present their work and interact with students. The students are encouraged and expected to actively participate in these discussions, and to take advantage of the many opportunities to network and receive input on their projects and future plans.

2026 Invited Speakers
Omar Abdel-Wahab, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 
Karen Adelman, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 
Shelley Berger, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelpha, PA 
Stephen Buratowski, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 
Ibrahim Cissé, Max Planck Institute (MPI-IE), Freiburg, Germany 
Hector Franco, Univ of Puerto Rico Comprehensive Cancer Center, San Juan, Puerto Rico 
Daniel Larson, NIH / NCI, Bethesda, MD 
Shannon Lauberth, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL 
Michael Levine, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 
Elphege Nora, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 
Athma Pai, UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA 
Vijay Ramani, Gladstone Institutes / UCSF, San Francisco, CA 
Ali Shilatifard, Northwestern University, Chicago, United States 
Seychelle Vos, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 


Support & Stipends:

Major support provided by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

We would like to acknowledge the following companies that provided invaluable support:

Cytiva, QSonica, ThermoFisher Scientific

Stipends are available to offset tuition costs as follows:

        

Please indicate your eligibility for funding in your stipend request submitted when you apply to the course. Stipend requests do not affect selection decisions made by the instructors. 

Cost (including board and lodging): $5,845 USD

No fees are due until you have completed the full application process and are accepted into the course. 

Before applying, ensure you have (all due April 10):
  1. Personal statement/essay;
  2. Letter(s) of recommendation;
  3. Curriculum vitae/resume (optional);
  4. Financial aid request (optional).
    More details.

If you are not ready to fully apply but wish to express interest in applying, receive a reminder two weeks prior to the deadline, and tell us about your financial aid requirements, click below: