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

We are interested in the connection between epigenetics and the environment, and the idea that, by inducing heritable and reversible epigenetic changes to a cell or an organism, the environment can modify its identity in the long term. We are developing two main research axes to address these questions, one at the cellular level and the second at the organism one, with special emphasize on the involvement of long and small non-coding RNAs in these processes:

• Integrated analysis of human embryonic stem cells (hESC): The aim of our project is to combine cell imaging and genome-wide approaches to study the epigenetic instability of hESCs, how it influences their fundamental properties and how this instability is connected to environmental stimuli. We use X-chromosome inactivation, known to be unstable in hESC and strongly influenced by culture conditions and environmental stresses, as readout for epigenetic instability. We focus in particular on the involvement of non-coding RNAs in the control of X-chromosome activity in humans.
• Contribution of epigenetic misregulation in the etiology of autism spectrum disorders (ASD): We are investigating whether pathogenic epigenomic variations may account for some cases of idiopathic ASD, using genome wide approaches, including miRNAome, and stem cells models.

List of post-docs and PhD involved in EpiGeneSys Project:

Dr. Céline Vallot, Post-doc
Dr. Jean-François Ouimette, Post-doc
Dr. Mélanie Makhlouf, Post-doc