Tag Archives: In Utero

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

The Epigenetics of Smoking During Pregnancy

Posted on August 10, 2012 by Chris Womack

Looking at around 474,000 CpG sites in cord blood from 1,062 newborns, a multi-institutional group of researchers took the first broad look at what happens epigenetically when pregnant moms smoke. Typical of epigenome scans, this one doesn’t make any clear links between methylation states and any diseases, though the researchers make a couple plausible connections, for example, suggesting that demethylation affects the AHRR gene’s role in fibroblast apoptosis in lungs. In any case, the data will be very useful to epigeneticists in general. Researchers from the NIH National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, the Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, Norway, Duke University, and several other institutions published the paper online at the NIEHS website … Continue reading →

Posted in Applications, DNA Methylation, Developmental Biology, Gene Regulation, Genomewide Methylation Profiling, In Utero | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Exercise & Rapid Muscle Methylation Changes – Q&A with Romain Barrès

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Chris Womack

Right after biking — and probably even rowing or slaloming — your muscle cells make quick epigenetic DNA alterations that epigeneticists previously considered long-lived and often long-to-form. And the amount of change depends on the intensity of exercise. To find out more about the upshot for this rapidly changing field, for epigeneticists themselves, for possible diabetic treatments, and even for good ol’ Lamarck himself, I spoke to lead author Romain Barrès, who conducted the research with colleagues at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, the University of Copenhagen, and Dublin City University. Within 20 minutes of acute exercise, the DNA in muscle cells becomes demethylated at certain gene-promoter sites — there’s no full account of all the changes yet, but Barrès and colleagues … Continue reading →

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Smoking and Placental Transcription–an Epigenetic Route to Low Birth Weight?

Posted on December 2, 2011 by Chris Womack

In an interesting little study published last month in the journal Epigenetics, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine compared transcriptomes and methylomes of placentas from 18 smokers and 18 non-smokers — checking for mRNA expression changes that matched methylations (or demethylations) in nearby promoters or enhancers. (Nearby the up- or down-regulated gene, that is.) It’s a new approach because no one’s ever related maternal smoking with transcriptome-wide altered expression and methylation changes at 27,000 CpG sites. That wide search netted 622 genes that showed significantly different expression patterns between the two groups, and 1,024 CpG sites that showed significant methylation differences. And after clearing away the … uh … statistical smoke, the BCM scientists discovered that at least six CpG … Continue reading →

Posted in DNA Methylation, Developmental Biology, Gene Regulation, Genomewide Methylation Profiling, In Utero, Sodium Bisulfite Sequencing, Transcriptome microarray | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Is Epigenetics the Basis of the ‘Autism Epidemic’?

Posted on May 1, 2011 by Nicole Kelesoglu

There is a proverb, said by the famous British historical literary critic, who published the first English Dictionary. “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” – Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) Today is the last day of April, which has been autism awareness month. I think it’s fitting to point out a provocative hypothesis of autism causation. Studies of folic acid metabolism and autism have been published over the past several years, by various authors. This recent paper King CR. A novel embryological theory of autism causation involving endogenous biochemicals capable of initiating cellular gene transcription. A possible link between twelve autism risk factors and the autism ‘epidemic’ Med hypotheses (2011) is interesting, since it presents a hypotheses that autism … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal Models, Autism, DNA Methylation, Developmental Biology, In Utero, Neuroscience | Tagged , , | 8 Comments