Dear Colleagues,
The Division of Biostatistics at the Department of Preventive Medicine invites you to attend the following seminar by our speaker, Luhang Han, Ph.D. Candidate at UofM.
Date: MONDAY, 04/09/2018
Time: 2 P.M.
Place: 4th Floor Conference Room 400 in the Doctors Office Building at 66 N. Pauline Street, Memphis, TN 38105. Please park in the multi-story parking garage adjacent to the Doctors Office Building, and bring your parking card with you so we can give you a validation ticket.
Presenter: Luhang Han, Ph.D. Candidate at UofM
Title: Identifying stable and dynamic CpG sites pre- and post-adolescence transition via a longitudinal genome-scale study
Abstract: There is some evidence that DNA methylation (DNA-M) over time is stable at certain cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) sites and varies at others (dynamic methylation). Adolescence transition (puberty) is considered associated with DNA-M change and this change is gender specific. In adolescence, a gender reversal of asthma prevalence occurs, from male predominance of asthma prevalence in young childhood to female predominance after adolescence. Given that DNA methylation may play a central role in susceptibility to asthma, assessing the stability of DNA-M provides a potential to understand the mechanisms of asthma transition during adolescence. The aim of this study was to identify dynamic and stable DNA-M at the genome scale and assess their gender-specificity. Data from children at 10 and 18 years old from the Isle of Wight birth(IOW) cohort in the United Kingdom were included. Epigenome-scale DNA-M was assessed using Illumina 450K and 850k EPIC platforms. Linear mixed models with repeated measures were implemented in our analysis. We identified 15,532 CpG sites were dynamic during adolescence transition in both genders, the level of DNA-M at 1,179 CpG sites is not stable during adolescence transition and this change is gender specific. The findings were further tested in an independent study, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Children and Parents (ALSPAC) study, as expected, the results showed an agreement with the findings from IOW cohort.
We look forward to seeing you all among us.
Mehmet Kocak, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biostatistics
Department of Preventive Medicine, UTHSC