Epigenetics research opens potential door to prevent neurodevelopmental disorders

Sai Ma, former Virginia Tech biomedical engineering Ph.D. student, and Chang Lu, the Fred W. Bull professor of Chemical Engineering at Virginia Tech. Credit: Virginia Tech ___ Epigenetic Changes Guide Development of Different Brain Regions (Dana Foundation): “It’s one of the greatest standing mysteries in neuroscience: Given that each cell in the human body contains the same DNA, how, exactly, does the brain develop into distinct functional regions, supported by different cell types? And how might that developmental program go awry, resulting in neurodevelopmental disorders like schizophrenia or autism? The answers may be the epigenome, or program of specific DNA modifications that affect where, when, and how much a particular gene will be expressed. Researchers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) have recently discovered significant epigenetic differences when comparing cells in the cerebellum and the prefrontal cortex of the mouse brain … West says. “The cerebellum develops after birth and it’s entirely possible that its organization is more vulnerable to certain kind of insults—insults that can affect the brain’s overall circuitry. Maybe there is some common biological process, some change to the epigenome, that results in the kind of problems we see in neurodevelopmental disorders” … “If we can understand the genetics and the epigenetics of the healthy brain—and then what’s different in a variety of neurologi...
Source: SharpBrains - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Cognitive Neuroscience Education & Lifelong Learning Health & Wellness Technology bioengineering brain cerebellum clinical disorders DNA epigenome Neurodevelopmental neurodevelopmental disorders neurological neuropsychiatric Source Type: blogs