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Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: thedoc on 02/11/2011 15:50:33

Title: What about the epigenetic effects of gene therapy?
Post by: thedoc on 02/11/2011 15:50:33

What do epigenetics mean for stem cell therapy? It's not just the genome that seems to count but also the expression of it through epigenetics as far I understand.
Asked by Ronald Rudolph


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Title: What about the epigenetic effects of gene therapy?
Post by: thedoc on 02/11/2011 15:50:33

We answered this question on the show...



We posed this question to Professor Adrian Thrasher from Great Ormand Street Hospital and University College London...
Adrian -   Epigenetics is increasingly important in our understanding of how genes work.  It regulates in some ways how the genes are turned on or off, it’s important through developmental processes.  It’s important in adult cells, in foetal cells.  It’s also important in gene therapy because we know if  we don't get the sequences right,  the genes can become epigenetically modified. – so may switch off unexpectedly which is undesirable.  It may switch on unexpectedly which is also undesirable.  So the epigenetics is important.  There's a lot of ongoing work.