Interplay among genetics, epigenetics and non-coding RNA's

It is now well recognised that many complex diseases such as cancer have strong genetic and epigenetic components. DNA methylation and histone modifications co-operate in gene regulation. The alterations in DNA methylations will be discussed and illustrated by studies in patients with inherited predispositions such as cancer. Furthermore an important focus of this meeting will be on the underlying genetic alterations or polymorphisms e.g. mutations, SNPs, copy number changes, acetylations and/or methylations in relation to disease predisposition. As disease progresses there are further alterations on the epigenetic level which could then have an effect of altering genome integrity accelerating the disease process and in the case of certain cancers giving rise to large-scale genome reorganisation.

Speakers have been invited that have used arrays to investigate epigenetic changes such as histone modifications and DNA methylation. We anticipate that the evolution of new, and cheaper, array-based technologies will allow us to study epigenetic changes in patients on an even higher resolution and promote the use of these technologies for disease diagnosis and prognosis. In this part of the program we will discuss the use of the new emerging platforms for investigating epigenetic changes in the genome including Chip on chip, DNA methylation analysis and high-throughput SNP analysis.