Epigenetics of Chronic Disease

There is an epidemic of chronic noncommunicable diseases, including a range of cardiopulmonary diseases, occurring throughout the developed world. The underlying causes of this epidemic are not well understood, but appear to be a consequence of maladaptive responses to a range of lifestyle, dietary and environmental characteristics of our modern societies.

A common feature of all these diseases is the presence of chronic low-grade systemic inflammation and dysregulation of several key metabolic control systems within the body. An emerging body of evidence implicates harmful epigenetic modifications as an underlying causative mechanism.

The goal of our Epigenetics of Chronic Disease Group is to identify the key causative epigenetic modifications occurring in a range of chronic cardiopulmonary diseases.

These investigations will take advantage of recent advances in long-read gene sequencing technology to enable us to draw a much more complete picture of the epigenetic causation of chronic disease. It is envisaged that this more detailed picture will provide for a better understanding of the underlying causes of disease resulting from modern lifestyles and provide clear targets for therapeutic intervention.