On April 10-12, 2024, a three-day international symposium on chromatin and RNA research took place in the auditorium of the JLU main building, chaired by Prof. Dr. Sigurd Braun (Institute of Genetics, Vice President GfG) together with Prof. Dr. Katja Sträßer (Institute of Biochemistry) was organized. The conference was financed by two EU and DFG-funded graduate programs (Cell2Cell, RTG2355), which are coordinated by the LMU Munich and the JLU Giessen. Registration was free, which meant that many students and doctoral candidates were able to take part.

The event was a total success! A total of 130 local and international participants came. The symposium was chaired by the Vice President for Research at JLU Prof. Dr. Martin Kramer opens. Top researchers from Israel (Prof. Dr. Schraga Schwarz), Switzerland (Prof. Dr. Susan Gasser) and the Netherlands (Prof. Dr. Bas van Steensel) gave the keynote readings. Many more lectures followed from guest speakers and also many young scientists from the two graduate programs. Another highlight was the awarding of the Society for Genetics' poster prize worth 300 euros to Gertjan Laenen (Institut Curie, Paris) by the GfG President Prof. Dr. Sandra Hake.

The lectures covered a wide range of different aspects of gene expression: from genome architecture to epigenetic mechanisms and analyzes at the single cell level to RNA modifications. Their importance during adaptation to environmental changes and infections with various parasites was also highlighted.