First of all, IHEP researchers from around the world will be investigating small chemical markers, so-called methylations, located on human DNA and the surrounding proteins. These are considered to be the key to which genes are activated and translated into proteins and which genes remain inactive. The project is funded with € 30 million by the European Commission. German scientific working groups from the universities of Saarland, Ulm, Kiel and Essen are involved, in addition to the German companies Cellzome from Heidelberg and Genomatrix from Munich.

The scientists want to discover the part that epigenetic markers play in the development of diseases such as blood cancer and diabetes type I. They intend to investigate the DNA methylations and their influence on gene activity in fifty blood cell types of healthy people and leukaemia sufferers respectively. For this purpose the IHEC scientists will analyse 1,000 sick and healthy cell types using fully automated DNA sequencers.

The scientists intend to use the epigenomes determined to construct genetic "maps" for diagnostic uses. They also expect new weak points that can be targeted by drugs for treating cancer and diabetes type I. For the first time there will then be a comparative epigenetic database for use in future biomedical research projects.

Source: http://www.biotechnologie.de/BIO/Navigation/DE/root,did=136310.html
Link: http://www.blueprint-epigenome.eu