Epigenetics is a hot research topic that links genes, the environment and health. This work was done within the international Pregnancy and Childhood Epigenetics (PACE) consortium. The work represents contributions from 26 studies. Professor Melén's group also contributed to the first PACE paper which showed that mother's smoking during pregnancy changes DNA in newborns and lead two PACE studies showing effects of air pollution. Links to diseases such as asthma, allergy, obesity and even aging have also been shown.

”We hope that our new findings will contribute valuable knowledge about fetal development, and in the long term new opportunities for better care of premature babies to avoid complications and adverse health effects,” says Erik Melén.

The Swedish part of the study was funded by the European Research Council (TRIBAL, grant agreement 757919), the Swedish Research Council, the Heart Lung Foundation, the Stockholm Region (ALF, and for the BAMSE project), and SFO Epidemiology, Karolinska Institutet.

Publication

Epigenome-wide meta-analysis of blood DNA methylation in newborns and children identifies numerous loci related to gestational age

Simon Kebede Merid, Alexei Novoloaca, Gemma C. Sharp, Leanne K. Küpers.... and Erik Melén

Genome Medicine, online 2 March 2020, doi.org/10.1186/s13073-020-0716-9