Spicing Up an Interdisciplinary Chemical Biology Course with the Authentic Big Picture of Epigenetic Research

The complexity of the world’s current grand challenges demands interdisciplinary approaches. The education of future scientists must cross the silos of the traditional disciplines; however, there is still a strong reluctance to tear such walls down. Here, we describe an integrative chemical biology course focused on epigenetics that strives to bring research culture to chemistry and biology Master’s students. The course, which has been successfully implemented for the past two years, combines three modules: lectures, discovery-based research lab, and science communication. Importantly, the outline of our course design could be easily adapted to different fields, improving the synergy between research and teaching in our universities.