Category Archives: Metabolism

Epigenetics and Fat — Not Just Girth

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Chris Womack

In honor of the U.S. national day of gustatory indulgence, I thought I’d write about girth and fat. EpiExperts Twitter friend Graham Burdge and colleagues at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom just published an interesting paper exploring how the fat content of a mother rat’s diet affects the polyunsaturated fats in her offspring’s cells and plasma, as well as how that diet may accomplish that feat — apparently it involves promoter methylation of the gene Fads 2. But first, girth. My co-blogger Nicole recently tweeted a blog post from U.S. National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, who shared a map by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control showing how obesity has swept the country since 1985. It’s bracing, … Continue reading →

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Canada Joins the International Human Epigenome Consortium – Q&A with Tomi Pastinen of Génome Québec

Posted on October 31, 2012 by Chris Womack

In an ambitious project investigating the interplay of environment, disease, and epigenetics, Canada is funneling $41 million into epigenomics research. It’s a multi-pronged effort to scrutinize a variety of tissue samples, disease states, and responses to environmental insults, so I called up Tomi Pastinen, the Canada research chair in human genetics, to learn more about the project. Here’s a lightly edited transcript of our conversation. But first, more about the project itself. It’s Canada’s entrée into the International Human Epigenome Consortium, and its announcement last week follows closely on the heels of last year’s launch of a European IHEC effort, BLUEPRINT (see our interview with the project’s Henk Stunnenberg here). While BLUEPRINT focused on blood epigenomes, which is common in … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal Models, Applications, DNA Methylation, Epigenome, Gene Regulation, Genomewide Methylation Profiling, Histone Modifications, Metabolism, Neuroscience, Next Gen Sequencing, Sodium Bisulfite Sequencing, Transcriptome | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

O-GlcNAcylation Epigenetic Mark is Palatable Research

Posted on June 14, 2012 by Nicole Kelesoglu

It’s well known that modern high calorie, sugary diets correlate with increasing rates of diabetes, obesity, neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer’s in particular), and cancers. Metabolic dis-regulation is associated and SUSPECT in all of these health problems. There are already over 14,000 records in the E3 Epigenetics publication database containing the word ‘Metabolism’. Researchers hope to show direct epigenetic events, leading to these disease outcomes. One such link, is the post-translational modification (PTM), O-GlcNAcylation. With the recent development of O-GlcNAc antibodies (thanks partially to grant initiatives by NCI in 2010), and improved mass spec techniques, the study of this unique type of sugar based PTM has become palatable. NIH scientists John A. Hanover, Michael W. Krause and Dona C. Love have just … Continue reading →

Posted in Cellular Biology, Enzymology, Gene Regulation, Genetics, Histone Modifications, History & Trends, Mass Spec, Metabolism, Nutrigenomics, O-GlcNAcylation | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments