Blood samples spotted onto Guthrie cards at birth could prove a valuable source of genomic DNA for epigenetic studies. They could potentially allow scientists to peer into the history of a patient's epigenome and reveal which epigenetic patterns helped cause disease, and which resulted from disease, researchers at the University of London report in tomorrow’s (August 23) online issue of Genome Research.
“If validated, this could indeed add a much needed time scale to correlation studies of methylation and disease,” L. H. Lumey, a medical epidemiologist at Columbia University, who did not participate in the research, wrote in an email.
Research into the genetic basis of complex diseases has demonstrated that a fair portion of heritability can’t be accounted for by genetic sequence alone, explained first author Vardhman Rakyan, a senior lecturer at the University of London. “Genetics contributes only about 15 to 20 percent of heritability of diabetes. Clearly ...
