FP7 Network of Excellence EpiGeneSys: Epigenetics towards systems biology

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Epigenetic regulation of the genome entails modifications to DNA and histones as well as noncoding RNAs and higher order chromatin structure. These modifications of the genome (collectively known as the epigenome) are particularly important for our understanding of how diet affects health throughout life since epigenome patterns in the cell are at least partly heritable and can be affected by diet and nutrition. We are part of a large European Network of Excellence (NoE) funded by the EU called EpiGeneSys. The postdoc funded on this project will try to understand how the environment, nutrients and metabolism, growth factors, cytokines and developmental programmes shape the epigenome through signalling pathways from the cell surface to DNA organised into chromatin. Cells respond continually to their environment and to their nutritional state by inducing new programmes of gene expression, which in turn modulates cell behaviour. These studies will ultimately lead to an understanding of how diet affects health throughout life, with the prospect of making recommendations on human nutrition in order to improve healthspan.

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