Wellcome Trust 4-year PhD studentship in Developmental Mechanisms. Additional funding from St John's college and the Cambridge Philosophical Society.
Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Testicular tumors, the most common cancer in young men, arise from abnormalities in germ cells during fetal development. Unconventional inheritance for testicular germ cell tumor (TGCT) risk both in humans and mice implicates epigenetic mechanisms. Apolipoprotein B mRNA-editing enzyme complex 1 (APOBEC1) cytidine deaminase and Deadend-1, which are ...
Published in Genome Biology
Abhay Sharma brings two arguments in favor of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance (TGEI) in mammals when criticizing our work. He uses probability calculations and finds that the probability of obtaining the number of common changes in the in utero-exposed prospermatogonia and the same cells in the next generation is significant in our study. ...
Published in Genome Biology
We thank Dr. Nadeau for his interest in our work. Dr. Nadeau has raised concerns about the experimental approach (mouse strains, route of administration, lack of phenotypic assessment) and about the validity of our conclusions. We will respond to each of these concerns point-by point. Please see related article: www.dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13059-015-07...
Published in Genome Biology
Not so fast. The Iqbal et. al. study and the associated Whitelaw commentary highlight the appropriately high standards of study design and interpretation needed to obtain good evidence for or against epigenetic inheritance. Please see related article: www.dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13059-015-0714-1
Published in Biology direct
"Which came first, the Chicken or the Egg?" We suggest this question is not a paradox. The Modern Synthesis envisions speciation through genetic changes in germ cells via random mutations, an "Egg first" scenario, but perhaps epigenetic inheritance mechanisms can transmit adaptive changes initiated in the soma ("Chicken first").
Published in Die Naturwissenschaften
Published in The Journal of biological chemistry
The global prevalence of weight loss is increasing, especially in young women. However, the extent and mechanisms by which maternal weight loss affects the offspring is still poorly understood. Here, using an enriched environment (EE)-induced weight loss model, we show that maternal weight loss improves general health and reprograms metabolic gene ...
Published in Russian Journal of Genetics: Applied Research
Genetics and physiology: what could be the relationship between the two subjects and the two sciences? The geneticist would possibly say that genetics forestalls physiology, because genes determine all the physiological systems. However, the genome, too, is formed in the process of phenotype selection, whereas the phenotype is a physiological syste...
Published in Genome Biology
BackgroundDespite the important role DNA methylation plays in transcriptional regulation, the transgenerational inheritance of DNA methylation is not well understood. The genetic heritability of DNA methylation has been estimated using twin pairs, although concern has been expressed whether the underlying assumption of equal common environmental ef...
