Many people have tried dietary changes, lifestyle interventions, medications, and bariatric surgery, and other methods for managing their obesity. While they may help in the short term, the “obesogenic” metabolic memory causes many of them to put the weight back on. A recent study in Nature suggests that the epigenome…

Keck School of Medicine of USC researchers, reporting in the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, say that epigenetic changes found in tumor suppressor genes of smokers are also found in people who vape. DNA methylation for smokers, vapers, and non-smokers was measured using samples of oral cells,…

Research led by the Tufts University in Boston shows that having a high combined score of eight heart healthy behaviors is associated with reduced cell aging, as measured by epigenetic biomarkers. The team also found that a one standard deviation (SD) increase in the score they created was linked to…

When Generation Lab officially launches in the spring this year, the company will offer what it claims is the first clinically-based test that uses epigenetic information to measure biological age and disease risk. The company is currently testing its product internally and plans to officially launch its product in the…

African Americans and Latinos who smoke can develop specific epigenetic changes putting them particularly at risk for cancer says research that comes from one of the largest multiethnic studies yet of smoking’s influence on cancer risk. Researchers from the Keck School of Medicine analyzed the link between smoking and DNA…

A partnership between researchers in Scotland and Sweden examining the effects of chronic kidney disease has yielded the development of a new epigenetic test that provides the most accurate measure of a patient’s biological aging to date. Reporting their findings in the Journal of Internal Medicine, the team comprising of…

The risk of obesity in women increases by 44 percent if a large number of methyl groups are attached to the (pro-opiomelanocortin) POMC gene, which has been linked to satiety. Further, a team from Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin, found that people with POMC epigenetic changes can respond to setmelanotide (Rhythm Pharmaceuticals’ Imcivree),…

Research in mice shows that previous urinary tract infections (UTIs) can result in bladder remodeling through epigenetic changes that can help fight future infections, but can also result in high levels of inflammation and chronic health issues. UTIs are an extremely common bacterial infection and can cause significant health problems…

UCLA researchers have found that female mouse and human natural killer (NK) cells have an extra copy of X chromosome-linked gene UTX. This gene acts as an epigenetic regulator to boost NK cell anti-viral function, while repressing NK cell numbers. “This implicates UTX as a critical molecular determinant of sex…

The search to understand and treat cancer triggers a desire to look for the cause. For decades, many clinicians and scientists suggested that genes cause cancer. Siddhartha Mukherjee wrote in The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, “Cancer, we have discovered, is stitched into our genome.” Indeed, cancer…

Regular exercise can induce epigenetic changes, new research on twins indicates. In this innovative study, scientists compared the genetics of twins who were raised together through childhood but went on to live separately as adults. After reaching adulthood, many of the pairs differed from each other on measures of physical…

Cancer cells that resist chemotherapy and become “persisters” remain a daunting clinical challenge. They appear to attain and retain their staying power largely through nongenetic mechanisms, which remain poorly defined. To understand these mechanisms better, scientists at the Curie Institute in Paris have studied cancer cells that occur in triple-negative…

A study carried out by researchers at Washington State University and Indiana University shows that an epigenetic signature collected from cheek cells could be used to predict whether a woman is likely to have a preterm birth. The signature was also observed in female children of mothers who had preterm…

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and German biotech Eisbach Bio will collaborate to develop precision cancer drugs to target epigenetic markers and destroy tumors. The partners will focus on a phenomenon known as synthetic lethality, where a combination of genetic variants, but not one in isolation, will…

Chroma Medicine, a new Cambridge, Massachusetts startup, came out of stealth mode and officially launched this week with $125M in Series A financing to develop the therapeutic potential of epigenetic editing. The company has a team of well-known and experienced scientific founders including Beam Therapeutics founder and Broad Institute professor…