Epigenome errors and modern epigenetics therapy.

Epigenetics is an area where our scientific knowledge is rapidly increasing. One thing that scientists have discovered is that epigenetic errors are common in diseases such as cancer and in ageing cells. As a result, scientists are developing medicines that target faulty epigenomes and one of the first examples is the use of HDAC inhibitors, similar to the compound found in royal jelly. From the study of strange patterns of inheritance such as genetic imprinting, the yellow/agouti Avy mouse, the all-female tortoiseshell cat population and other related phenomena biologists have uncovered a whole new layer of information that lies “on top” of the DNA sequence of our genes. These new discoveries explain these previous puzzling observations, but also have great potential for new understanding and treatments for human disease.