Epigenomics

Epigenomics is the study of the complete set of chemical epigenetic modifications on the genetic material of a cell, known as the epigenome. Epigenetic modifications are heritable, reversible modifications on a cell’s DNA or histones that affect gene expression without altering the DNA sequence.

The main epigenetic mechanisms are DNA methylation, histone modification and non-coding RNA-associated gene silencing. The Oxford Nanopore sequencing technology will be applied for our epigenomics work, seen its clear advantages as for instance the simple and rapid PCR-free library preparation that prevents loss of epigenetic modifications and thus the ability to perform direct DNA sequencing. Different types of double stranded DNA can be measured as for example genomic DNA (gDNA), complement DNA (cDNA) or amplicons.