Seminar on twin and family studies of environmental exposures, the human genome and DNA methylation

Twins NASA study

Location: Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Seminar Rooms 302/303, Level 3, 207 Bouverie Street, Carlton

Presented by the Australia-Korea Alliance for Science, Innovation and Action in Population and Global Health (AKASIA) and Twins Research Australia

There are many twin and family study designs that provide novel and compelling evidence about the causes of health and diseases not otherwise possible using studies of unrelated people alone. Presenters are from Seoul National University (SNU), Monash University and the University of Melbourne (UoM).

9.20 Welcome and Introductions
9.30 Smoking and DNA methylation – what twin data can add, and DMR, MeQTL and monozygotic twin differences in DNA methylation(Joohon Sung, SNU)
10.15 Insights from twin and family studies into the causes of variation in DNA methylation measures that predict disease (John Hopper, UoM)
10:45 Morning Tea
11.00 Methylation marks of prenatal exposure to maternal smoking and risk of cancer in adulthood (Pierre Dugué, Monash)
11.30 Epigenetic signatures and the contribution of the methylomic drift in young-onset colorectal cancer (Eric Ji-Hoon Joo, UoM)
12.00  Epigenetics of neurodevelopmental disorders using monozygotic twins (Namitha Mohandas, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute)
12.20 Sex differences in epigenetic profiles from studying male-female twin pairs  (Lucas Calais-Ferreira, UoM)
12.40 Wrap up and Discussion