Epigenomics: Unlocking the Hidden Potential in Genomic Research

DNA sequence was the core of genomic research until the emergence of epigenomics where it ‎has been discovered that the surrounding chemical compounds can direct the way the genome ‎functions as a whole. ‎

Given its physical association with genomic material, the epigenome has been suggested to play ‎key roles in regulating genome structure and function, including the timing, strength, and ‎memory of gene expression.1 ‎

Epigenomics has progressed over the past decades and has been hailed as an explanation for ‎inter- and intra-individual diversity, and on the other, as a purveyor of hidden information ‎beyond genes that can be influenced by intrinsic and extrinsic fluctuations. Epigenetic ‎modifications are key to cellular differentiation and help determine cellular identity i.e. what ‎distinguishes a skin cell from a brain or other type of cell.2 ‎

Epigenomic profiling was the key to discov¬ering many significant associations between ‎chromatin features and genomic function at the level of gene regu¬lation and expression, cell ‎identity, ageing and even dis¬ease. 3‎

The process of epigenomic compounds binding to DNA and exerting

Conditions including cancers, metabolic disorders, and degenerative disorders have all ‎been found to be related to epigenetic errors. Their alterations have been associated to early ‎stages of cellular transformation in tumors.4 ‎

Epigenomes include histone and DNA modification layered on top of the genome. These are ‎responsible for directing the genome to feed information to genes during particular events. The ‎epigenetic condition of a cell is affected by both developmental and environmental factors, ‎including nutrition, toxins, infection and drugs of abuse. Thus, epigenetics exhibits a close ‎relationship between environment and