Effects of DNA Methylation on Diabetes (Charlotte Ling)

In this episode of the Epigenetics Podcast, we caught up with Charlotte Ling from Lund University in Sweden, to talk about her work on the role of DNA methylation in diabetes.

Dr. Charlotte Ling investigates how epigenetics influences diabetes, a major age-related disease that affects millions of people around the world. She and her team identified CpG-SNPs and differentially methylated DNA in human pancreatic islets, associated with Type 2 Diabetes. In addition, she explored the impact of a six-month exercise intervention plan on DNA methylation and health in middle-aged diabetic men.

Later-on, looking for useful applications for this knowledge, she determined blood-based biomarkers for diabetes and for successful treatment with Metformin, a common drug used for diabetes patients.

In this episode we discuss how Charlotte Ling ended up in the field of diabetes, how the success of her work impacted her ability to go on vacations, and how the results of her work are now used to develop blood-based biomarkers.

References

• Karl Bacos, Linn Gillberg, … Charlotte Ling (2016) Blood-based biomarkers of age-associated epigenetic changes in human islets associate with insulin secretion and diabetes (Nature Communications) DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11089

• Sonia García-Calzón, Alexander Perfilyev, … Charlotte Ling (2020) Epigenetic markers associated with metformin response and intolerance in drug-naïve patients with type 2 diabetes (Science Translational Medicine) DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aaz1803

• Madhusudhan Bysani, Rasmus Agren, … Charlotte Ling (2019) ATAC-seq reveals alterations in open chromatin in pancreatic islets from subjects with type 2 diabetes (Scientific Reports) DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-44076-8

Related Episodes

• Epigenetic Reprogramming During Mammalian Development (Wolf Reik)

• Diabetes and Epigenetics (Jean-Sébastien Annicotte)

• Nutriepigenetics: The Effects of Diet on Behavior (Monica Dus)

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