An ambitious EC-funded research initiative on epigenetics advancing towards systems biology

My research is focused on how maternal nutrition during pregnancy and early baby nutrition influences the health of the offspring at adult age (BARKER hypothesis, DOHaD hypothesis, Developmental Origins of Health and Disease), namely with regards to lipid metabolism and cardiovascular diseases. The key idea is that nutrients induce epigenetic changes in the embryo and fetus which persist into adulthood and hence change the susceptibility to develop chronic disease.

In a first line, we study how nutrients (e.g., lipids) are transported via the placenta and how this can be modified. As the next step, we focus on the development and acute regulation of fetal lipid metabolism. Lastly, we study how maternal nutrition or placental events influence the epigenome of the fetus.

My work forms a bridge from fetal physiology via epigenetics to long-term health outcome. Most work is performed in mouse models, but human studies are also done. Methods include bisulfite pyrosequencing, microarrays, and now also RRBS seq. People contributing are Dr. Agnes Lendvai, Mathijs Zwier, Maurien Pruis and Lidiya Dimova.