Nature Genetics | September 6th 2021
Impact of genetics on epigenetics published in Nature Genetics
Nature Genetics this week published the result of a major international study to chart the impact of genetics on DNA methylation, a key epigenetic mark. It was the result of an effort by more than 150 scientists of 50 university and institutes with a leading role of LUMC researchers.
The study reported over 270 thousand genetic effects on DNA methylation by analyzing data from 32,851 participants from 38 studies. “This atlas is an important step in understanding the causes of epigenetic differences between persons and how this may influence health and disease”, says Bas Heijmans, professor of population epigenomics at the LUMC, who supervised the work together with colleagues from the universities of Bristol and Exeter and King’s College London.
The full paper Genomic and phenotypic insights from an atlas of genetic effects on DNA methylation can be read in Nature Genetics.