Epigenetic mechanisms including altered DNA methylation are critical for altered gene transcription subserving synaptic plasticity and the retention of learned behavior. Here we tested the idea that one role for activity-dependent altered DNA methylation is stabilization of cognition-associated hippocampal place cell firing in response to novel place learning. We observed that a behavioral prot...

In family-based longitudinal genetic studies, investigators collect repeated measurements on a trait that changes with time along with genetic markers. Since repeated measurements are nested within subjects and subjects are nested within families, both the subject-level and measurement-level correlations must be taken into account in the statistical analysis to achieve more accurate estimation....

During past decades, twin studies have played an important role in genetic epidemiology studies of complex traits. The strength of twin studies lies in the ability to disentangle genetic and environmental factors that contribute to a phenotype, by comparing genetically identical monozygotic twins to dizygotic twins, who share on average 50% of genetic variants. Twin studies now offer the opport...

BACKGROUND Feasibility of genotyping of hundreds and thousands of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in thousands of study subjects have triggered the need for fast, powerful, and reliable methods for genome-wide association analysis. Here we consider a situation when study participants are genetically related (e.g. due to systematic sampling of families or because a study was performed in ...

The translational sciences aim to transfer results from basic research to the treatment of animals or patients. One of the approaches that could be utilized to achieve this goal is the in vitro-in vivo extrapolation (IVIVE) of pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) properties using in silico methods. Such methodology, if properly applied, could help substantially reduce the use of animal...

sequence is the exclusive source of heritable information. Epigenetic changes are independent of the genetic code, but nevertheless can be passed on to offspring. " There may even be an epigenetic code that can determine patterns of gene expression over many cell generations, " says Jenuwein. The new network will create a virtual institute with three central activities: a joint research program...

Platform technologies for measurement of CpG methylation at multiple loci across the genome have made ambitious epigenome-wide association studies affordable and practicable. In contrast to genetic studies, which estimate the effects of structural changes in DNA, and transcriptomic studies, which measure genomic outputs, epigenetic studies can access states of regulation of genome function in p...