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Epigenetics

The study of the way changes in a cell function occur and the effects that they have where the changes are not brought about by changes to DNA is the study of epigenetics. Such changes are heritable.

There are many types of epigenetic changes e.g. methylation and phosphorylation and some are known to be present in certain diseases.

Expertise

The Monash based equipment for epigenetics research is located at the School of Translational Medicine in the Department of Diabetes. The researchers are interested in the identification of epigenetic and transcription factor binding including alterations in DNA and RNA modification, chromatin structure and accessibility using mouse and human disease models. They have expertise in:

  • De novo transcriptome assembly
  • RNA-seq – mRNA sequencing and functional anaylsis of differential gene expression and geneset enrichment analysis including pathway networks.
  • MicroRNA-seq and ncRNA-seq- high-throughput DNA sequencing to sequence microRNAs and small non-coding RNA.
  • ChiP-seq – ChIP assay coupled with sequencing and tertiary analysis of epigenomic determinant binding at gene promoters and enchancers.
  • MBDCap-seq – DNA methylation sequencing ultising methyl-domain-binding protein for the enrichment of differentially methylated regions across the whole genome.
  • Whole genome bisulfite sequencing – WGBS, whole genome methylation sequencing with CpG site-specific resolution and comprehensive analysis.
  • ATAC-seq – a method for genome-wide mapping of chromatin accessibility plus analysis, allowing for characterization of the regulatory landscape of chromatin.
  • Single cell Transcriptomics – Drop-seq, analyzes of mRNA transcripts from individual cells in a highly parallel fashion followed by customised analysis.
  • Data integration – meta-analysis of several omics datasets with expertise in using analytical pipelines to intergrate multiomics data for example Methylome and/or ChIP-seq with transcriptome

Equipment

  • Dolomite Drop-seq -single cell RNA system
  • Illumina Miseq system
  • High-throughput sonication – QSonica Q700 Sonicator 700 Watt Ultrasonic Processor
  • Microchip Electrophoresis System for DNA/RNA Analysis – SHIMADZU Multi-NA
  • Tecan High-throughput robotics

Access and Contact

Equipment is available for booking and use by precinct researchers under supervised access. Please direct queries to the general research inquiries contact below. For general research enquiries contact:

Dr Ishant Khurana
Research Fellow and Laboratory Manager
Monash University
Ishant.khurana@monash.edu
School of Translational Medicine - Platforms and facilities