Submitted Abstract
Conditions experienced in early life play a primordial role in determining whether we remain healthy, or have an increased susceptible to a wide range of common diseases throughout our life. Poor conditions in early life are well known to influence the long term risk of developing many major public health problems such as type 2 diabetes, major depression, schizophrenia, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. Information about our prior life experience is added onto our genome by epigenetic modifications such as DNA methylation. These epigenetic modifications may occur many years before the associated disease becomes detectable. MetCOEPs looks at how these entirely natural modifications to our genome influence the activity of the associated genes, and the proteins they produce. Understanding this cascade of events will allow us to better understand how our environment influences our wellbeing, and to understand how these epigenetic markers can be used to identify people at risk of many diseases, allowing for suitable early interventions that reduce the eventual disease risk.