The National Institutes of Health (NIH) today announced that it will award 22 grants to researchers to study how changes caused by epigenetics (changes in gene expression within a cell, organ or individual, yet DNA remains the same) can result in health problems and diseases. As part of the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research's Epigenomics Program, a major focus of the research will be the impact of changes caused by diet, aging, stress, and environmental changes.
NARSAD Scientific Council member Nora D. Volkow, M.D., director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), was quoted in a statement: "The new grantees being announced will join a larger collaborative research effort that is working together to understand epigenetics and how it affects human health and disease."
Among the grantees:
David A. Bennett, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Exploring the role of the Brain Epigenome: Cognitive Decline and Life Experiences.
Paul D. Coleman, Sun Health Research Institute, Sun City, Ariz., DNA Methylation in Alzheimer's Disease and Normally Aged Brain.
Margaret Daniele Fallin, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Environment, the Perinatal Epigenome, and Risk for Autism and Related Disorders.
Roel A. Ophoff, University of California, Los Angeles, Epigenetic and Disease: The Role of DNA Methylation in Schizophrenia Susceptibility. (NARSAD grantee: YI 2002, II 2008)
Art Petronis, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, DNA Methylome Analysis in Bipolar Disorder. (NARSAD grantee: YI 1998, YI 2001, II 2003, II 2005)
For a full list of grantees, and more information about the Roadmap project, visit the NIH Web site.
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