The Human Epigenome Project

We're embarking on a kind of map making that will usher in new ways of understanding ourselves- a map that can explain why identical twins are not truly identical, so that one succumbs to schizophrenia while the other remains cognitively inact; why what your mom ate can save or sabotage your health (as well as your children); and how are genetic fates can be tuned by such universals as love or vitamins.

The Human Epigenome Project (HEP) aims to identify, catalogue and interpret genome-wide DNA methylation patterns of all human genes in all major tissues. Methylation is the only flexible genomic parameter that can change genome function under exogenous influence. Mapping 25,000 genes and the three billion pairs of bases in our DNA. Hence it constitutes the main and so far missing link between genetics, disease and the environment that is widely thought to play a decisive role in the aetiology of virtually all human pathologies. Methylation occurs naturally on cytosine bases at CpG sequences and is involved in controlling the correct expression of genes. Differentially methylated cytosines give rise to distinct patterns specific for tissue type and disease state. Such methylation variable positions (MVPs) are common epigenetic markers. Like single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), they promise to significantly advance our ability to understand and diagnose human disease.

"Like land without borders, roads without names, maps without movement."