Epigenetic map of human genome to advance understanding of dementia
The UK Government’s Department for Health and Social Care has announced that genetic sequencing will be conducted on 50,000 samples from the UK Biobank in a collaboration with Oxford Nanopore Technologies, a life science company, to create an ‘epigenetic map’ of the human genome to improve understanding of conditions including dementia.
The Department for Health and Social Care say:
“Epigenetics is the emerging study of how inheritable traits – such as the risk of developing a certain disease – can emerge and change without actual changes in our DNA code, but rather as a result of modifications that change how our genes are expressed. These modifications can arise randomly, but also in response to environmental factors like smoking or UV exposure. Put simply, if our DNA is the instructions in the cookbook, our epigenome is the chef. Different chefs will interpret the cooking method in their own way, and as a result, the meal produced will be different.”
You can find out more here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/landmark-genetics-partnership-to-probe-causes-of-cancer-and-dementia