This is the first annual activity report for the newly-created Epigenetics and Cellular Memory Chair. It will consist of two parts: a report on lectures and one on research. The aim of this Chair is to provide an insight into a new and very rich field of biology, which touches on the development of organisms and their normal or pathological variations, particularly in relation to the environment, as well as heredity and evolution.
The opening lecture, entitled "Epigenetics and cellular memory" took place on December 13, 2012. The lectures ran from February to the end of March 2013. For this first series of lectures I wanted to go through the notions linked to epigenetics and their evolution through the centuries since Aristotle, while highlighting their place today, at the heart of biology.