Abstract

Methylation-Sensitive High Resolution Melting (MS-HRM) is a method for epigenetic biomarker detection, which we have developed at Aarhus University. The utility of the method for both epigenetic research and as a potentially diagnostic tool has just been successfully evaluated by the international consortium (BLUEPRINT) with the results published in Nature Biotechnology. In my talk I will describe the development of MS-HRM from idea to commercialization. 

All human cells contain the same genomic material, the same genes, but the different tissues constituting a human body reflect a large variety of cell phenotypes. This variation of cell function is regulated mainly by epigenetic mechanisms, which comprise DNA methylation, Histone modifications and microRNA expression. Together they regulate gene expression both on transcriptional and translational levels.

For decades an intense search for genetic lesions as a cause of complex diseases have not yet revealed a complete picture of the origin of diseases as: cancer, diabetes, cardio-vascular and autoimmune diseases as well as psychiatric diseases. The development in technologies to assess even minor epigenetic changes has turned the focus onto epigenetics as not only the accompanying but in many aspects the leading cause and the onset of these diseases.

Partly due to the relatively easily accessible tumor tissue, DNA methylation changes are intensively studied in cancer. An exponentially growing amount of information is published, but still only a handful biomarkers are available for screening, prognostication or prediction of treatment regime. 

Bio on Lise Lotte Hansen

Participation

All are welcome and registration is not necessary - just show up. After the lecture, further discussion is possible accompanied by coffee, tea and cake in the AIAS Hall.

Organiser and contact

The guest lecture is organised by Tomasz K. Wojdacz (AIAS):

Tomasz K. Wojdacz, AIAS Fellow
Aarhus Institute for Advanced Studies (AIAS), Aarhus University
wojdacz@biomed.au.dk
Phone: +4587152136