Epigenetic Programming and Inheritance (D2)

Epigenetics is emerging as a fundamentally important area of biological and medical research with implications for our understanding of developmental and physiological processes, for childhood and adult disease, as well as for an unexpected and important new mode of inheritance. Epigenetics deals with changes in gene expression patterns that are independent of the underlying DNA sequence. These mechanisms modulate expression patterns throughout development and adulthood and are strongly influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. Anomalies can lead to birth defects, metabolic disease, cancer and behavioral changes. Recent evidence shows that epigenetic features can be transmitted across generations, suggesting that molecular changes in addition to DNA sequence differences control phenotypic variation and disease risk and therefore that epigenetics might be as important as genetics in organismal biology. We propose a program that brings together both established researchers and rising stars, where for the first time individuals focusing on molecular mechanisms can interact with those studying population consequences, so that these two communities begin to work together to understand epigenetics in the context of health and disease. We propose three themes, each with two sessions, and with two themes per day. Theme 1 is Epigenetic and Epigenomic Mechanisms; Theme 2 is Transgenerational Inheritance and imprinting, Theme 3 is Developmental Origins and Epigenetic Epidemiology. We propose 6 sessions, 2 per day over 3 days, with 7 speakers per day. Day 1: Session 1, theme 1 (4 speakers), Session 2, theme 2 (3 speakers) Day 2: Session 3, theme 2 (4 speakers), Session 4, theme 3 (3 speakers) Day 3: Session 5, theme 3 (4 speakers), Session 6, theme 1 (3 speakers) The final schedule of speakers will be determined by the appropriate sequence of hot topics at the time of the conference.