Catalog of DNA modifications produces surprises

New insight into Alzheimer’s, cancer, more comes from roadmap of epigenetic changes

diagram of body parts

BODY MAP  Researchers mapped chemical tags on DNA in 111 different tissues and cells (including those pictured here). These chemical tags, or epigenetic marks, supply the directions needed to build a person from a parts list contained in DNA.

Roadmap Epigenomics Consortium

A series of fine-tuned maps of DNA packaging in human cells reveal dynamic new views of how the genome’s instructions are carried out to build a person.