About EpiC

The Center for Epigenetic Cell Memory (EpiC) is a Center of Excellence supported by the the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF). EpiC was established in August 2025 and is based in the Danish Cancer Institute (DCI) in Copenhagen.

The mission of EpiC is to lead the evolving field of epigenetic cell memory through technology-driven, ground-breaking discoveries. Five outstanding research groups have come together to use state-of-the-art technologies and interdisciplinary research to understand how cells faithfully inherit their epigenetic information as they divide: integrating developmental & environmental cues, while remembering cell identity and prior stress.

Because the retention of epigenetic information is aberrant in aging and diseases such as cancer, our research supports advances in therapeutic, regenerative and rejuvenative medicine.

What is Epigenetic Cell Memory?

Our bodies are made of hundreds of different cell types (brain, skin, muscle…), performing specialised functions in the body. But all these cells originated from a single cell at fertilisation and contain the same ‘human body instruction manual’ (our DNA). During development, cells divide and specialise into many cell types. These specialised cells must only access the DNA instructions relevant to their cell-type. This access is controlled by and additional information layer on top of the DNA - epigenetic information.

This epigenetic information therefore encodes healthy cell identity. When a cell divides, this epigenetic information must be inherited to the new, daughter cells so that the memory of cell identity is maintained (e.g. healthy skin cells remain healthy skin cells) and healthy body development and maintenance can occur. While we understand very well how DNA (the genome) is inherited, much remains unknown about how the epigenome is inherited across our lifespan. We need to understand this to treat processes where the healthy epigenome deteriorates (cancer, aging) and to change cell identity to benefit our health (rejuvenative & regenerative medicine).