Early life factors may impact genes of Glasgow's poorest, study claims

Unhealthy lifestyles associated with social deprivation may have detrimental effects on DNA before birth, say scientists. A study of adults living in Glasgow shows a correlation between deprivation and DNA methylation - a normal process that occurs mainly during embryonic development and regulates gene activity...[Read More]

Progress Educational Trust Conference: Growing Concern?

The consequences of assisted reproductive technology (ART) are a matter of great concern, whether this is the development of the embryo, the perinatal health of the mother, or the ongoing health of the child....[Read More]

TV Review: Brave New World - Biology

Breakthroughs in biology that 'will transform the resilience and strength of the human body' are the subject of the last episode of Stephen Hawking's brilliant series 'Brave New World'. In just under an hour 'Biology' takes the viewer on a whirlwind tour of some of the newest and most awe-inspiring technologies. We're talking cures for cancer, organ regeneration and experiments in longevity and heritability...[Read More]

Progress Educational Trust Conference: Introduction to the embryo and its out of body experience

Progress Educational Trust (PET)'s annual conference, 2011, 'The Best Possible Start in Life: The Robust and Responsive Embryo', started with two fantastic sessions chaired by Dr Virginia Bolton, consultant embryologist at the assisted conception unit at Guy's Hospital, London, UK....[Read More]

Mapping the epigenome: Europe leads the way

The European Commission (EC) is investing €30 million in BLUEPRINT, a project to map the human epigenome - the sum total of the non-coding, but inherited, modifications to DNA...[Read More]

Radio Review: The First 1,000 Days - A Legacy for Life (Future Generations)

The immediate impact of environmental factors like diet, smoking and stress on health are well understood. But less is known about how your lifestyle can directly effect the health of your unborn children and grandchildren...[Read More]

Stress response spans generations

Scientists have shown that the effects of stress can be passed from one generation to the next via chemical changes to the DNA which turn genes on or off without altering the code itself....[Read More]

Pregnancy diet linked to childhood obesity

An international study has found an association between lower consumption of carbohydrates during early pregnancy and the activity of a gene thought to be linked to increased fat levels in children...[Read More]

Epigenomic research sheds light on complex disease

US researchers have revealed how changes in regions of DNA that do not code for genes can affect disease. The majority of the human genome is composed of non-protein coding regions of DNA. Changes in these regions are associated with disease susceptibility, but precisely how these changes function is unclear...[Read More]

Study finds abnormalities in iPS Cells

Adult human cells maintain a 'memory' when reprogrammed into a stem cell-like state, US scientists have found. The finding suggests the resulting induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are not yet a viable alternative to human embryonic stem (ES) cells for modelling or treating disease...[Read More]

Book Review: Drawing the Map of Life - Inside the Human Genome Project

The quest to sequence the first human genome has all the ingredients of a good thriller. Privately funded maverick scientist Dr Craig Venter raced the government-sponsored Human Genome Project (HGP) to be the first to sequence the human genetic code. When the draft code was finally published in 2001, it became one of the landmark scientific advances of the last decade...[Read More]

Radio Review: Frontiers - Epigenetics

This Frontiers programme challenged three genetic dogmas. The presenter quoted a recent Observer headline on epigenetics: 'Why everything we were told about evolution was wrong!'...[Read More]

Epigenetic effects of stress being slowly uncovered

New research suggests that the impact of stress may be passed on from one generation to the next, and that psychiatric illness may have some degree of 'epigenetic heritability'....[Read More]

Epigenetic changes linked to obesity

Chemical modifications to genes over a person's lifetime may influence their weight without changing their inherited DNA sequence, a new study has found. This is the first time long-standing chemical alterations to genes have been linked to body weight and obesity... [Read More]

£20 million study comparing the epigenetics of twins launched

Scientists from the UK and China are collaborating to study epigenetic signatures that mark the differences between 5,000 twins. Those affected by diabetics and osteoporosis are just some of the people who could be set to benefit from the £20 million 'Epitwin' project....[Read More]

Setback in non-embryonic stem cell use

Stem cells created from a patients' own tissue are subtly different from those derived from embryos in ways that may affect their therapeutic potential, two independent research groups have found. Both studies found induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) retain an 'epigenetic memory' of their tissue of origin...[Read More]

Gene-ecology interactions and psychological disorders

The models emerging from behavioural biology are increasingly sophisticated. They do not undermine the quest for candidate genes, but rather augment our understanding of why those genes might persist in populations and be differentially expressed across circumstances....[Read More]

Who are the real creators of a living being?

The announcement that scientists at the University of Newcastle have developed a new procedure that could eventually help women with dysfunctional mitochondria (the energy source of the cell), made headline news across the world...[Read More]

Epigenetics in psychiatric disorders: A guide for beginners

Mental health is a huge global concern, with one in four people experiencing some form of mental health problem at some point in their lives. Psychiatric disorders are sometimes difficult to study, as they are diagnosed on the basis of observed behaviours...[Read More]

Are genetic markers helpful in understanding psychological disorders?

In their concluding remarks, all three speakers said the answer to the question implicit in the event's title - if you are genetically predisposed to a neurodevelopmental disorder, does this effectively mean you are marked for life? - is an emphatic 'no'. Nonetheless, they had divergent views on the likelihood of successfully applying the fruits of genetic research into mental health... [Read More]