Grant: Team Grant: Nutrition and the Epigenome

A person's environment - including their diet - can affect the activity levels of some of their genes. These "epigenetic" changes have recently emerged as a possible way by which early life exposures and experiences can leave behind a biological signature that influences lifelong health. DNA methylation, a commonly studied epigenetic mark that affects gene regulation, has been studied in a variety of contexts in human populations, such as aging, cancer, and disease. One area that has been lacking is an understanding of how early-life nutritional exposures and subsequent epigenetic changes may lead to metabolic adaptations and affect disease risk across the full life course. We propose to fill this gap by examining epigenetic changes in relation to maternal and infant nutrition-related factors and subsequent risk factors for metabolic health and disease. We can then build on these findings in order to identify molecular mechanisms through which nutrition-related specific DNA methylation changes lead to developmental adaptations.